Take Action — Presidential Candidate Gary Johnson Excluded from New Hampshire Presidential Debate
By Aaron - June 3, 2011 at 12:12 PM
Filed under Elections , Gary Johnson , Leaders , New Hampshire , Presidential , States
Filed under Elections , Gary Johnson , Leaders , New Hampshire , Presidential , States
Seven Republicans will meet this month for the first New Hampshire debate of the 2012 election, taking place on June 13 in Manchester and sponsored by CNN/WMUR/NH Union-Leader.
Unfortunately, RLC Advisory Board member Gary Johnson, the former Governor of New Mexico twice elected in a Democrat state, was not invited. This despite the fact that Johnson polls at 3% nationally and participated in the first GOP Presidential debate in South Carolina. Several of the candidates invited have not even announced they are running, but Johnson formally announced his candidacy.
RLC members believe that Governor Johnson (as well as Congressman Ron Paul) has solutions to offer Republican voters. If they are not permitted to hear the liberty message, they can’t become a part of the liberty movement by joining groups like the Republican Liberty Caucus. Johnson’s positions and viewpoints have particularly strong appeal to New Hampshire voters and not including them is doing them a real disservice.
TAKE ACTION
If concerned Americans don’t protest the exclusion of Governor Johnson from the debate, he will surely not be included. However, if we let folks know what our opinion on the matter is, they are more likely to give him consideration.
Please request to hear Governor Gary Johnson in the debate!
• There is now a grassroots petition being signed up online Change.org which will be sent to media and GOP leaders.
• Call WMUR at (603) 669-9999 and fill out their contact form.
• Call the NH Union-Leader newspaper at (603) 668-4321 or e-mail them.
• Call CNN at (404) 827-1500 or (202) 898-7900 or text CNN (space) and your news tip to 772937. You can also submit your comment online.
• Post your comments at CNN’s article about the debate.
Another option is to contact the Advertising Departments for each of these outlets and inform them that you will not be purchasing anything they sell until Gary Johnson is included in the debate. If the Advertising Department believes they will lose customers, they will pressure other departments to change their strategy.
If prospective GOP voters do not get to hear from Gary Johnson, it’s one less liberty advocate providing the solutions our country needs.
Please forward this message to other concerned Americans.
On June 4th, 2011 at 12:21 am
My name is Charles Lupton. I have started a petition at change.org to get him included in the debate. Johnson has long stood for Liberty and smaller government with a record as one of the most fiscally conservative governors in history. Please help by signing the petition at: http://www.change.org/petitions/demand-cnn-and-sponsors-invite-former-gov-gary-johnson-to-the-june-13th-nh-primary-debate
On June 4th, 2011 at 11:21 pm
You would hope that Ron Paul supporters would take a stand by supporting this effort since there were similar attempts to exclude Congressman Paul from the debates four years ago using the same rationale (“he’s not a serious candidate”). If the movement is truly about the ideas and not the man (Ron Paul), then liberty advocates ought to support Gary Johnson’s efforts to get into the presidential debates.
On June 6th, 2011 at 5:08 pm
Just called WMUR and it appears that they have a criterion set forth by their masters at Hearst News Corp and CNN to exclude candidates that hadn’t polled above 2% in national polls from April – May. Kinda hard for Gov. Johnson to do this since he hadn’t been seen on national tv until May. He also was to have reached a 2% threshold in a NH poll in mY.
On June 8th, 2011 at 10:04 pm
Doesn’t that criterion also exclude some of those they have already invited?
On June 9th, 2011 at 9:28 pm
It seems that cnn has locked out the comments section on their web site.
On June 11th, 2011 at 9:25 pm
I found my way to this page via a link in the article “Why is Gov. Gary Johnson Not in Next Week’s Debate?” published on June 9 at Blogcritics.org. Its author, Dave Nalle, devotes 1,080 words to chastising CNN for excluding a Republican presidential wannabe from a debate the network is staging. Mr. Nalle neglects to mention, nor is it disclosed on his Blogcritics author’s page, that he is National Chairman of the RLC, and that the presidential wannabe is an RLC Advisory Board member.
Nalle’s position stands in stark contrast to the advice he tendered at Blogcritics (BC) only 11 days earlier to a writer unfairly blacklisted at BC. “Irvin,” wrote Dave, “this is a privately owned and operated website…. You can’t force this site to give you a venue if they don’t want to. I sympathize, but from a libertarian perspective their rights of ownership trump your desire for access.”
So which is it, Dave? Why do Blogcritics’ rights of ownership trump Irv’s desire for access, but Gary Johnson’s desire for access trumps CNN’s rights of ownership?
Obviously the answer is that it suits Mr. Nalle’s self-interest to champion Johnson over CNN, just as it suits his self-interest as BC’s senior politics editor to defend BC against a blacklisted writer.
I predict that under Dave Nalle’s leadership, the Republican Liberty Caucus will go far in national politics. In that arena, hypocrisy is valued above all else.
Alan Kurtz
Redwood City, CA