Green Party Candidate Excluded from California Governor’s Debate- Arrested For Trespassing

[Panaconda]

AMY GOODMAN: While Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman debated Tuesday night at Dominican University in San Rafael, the Green Party candidate for governor was being arrested outside the hall. Police charged Laura Wells with trespassing after she tried to get into the debate that she was not allowed to participate in. In 2002, when Wells ran for state comptroller, she received more than 400,000 votes. Part of her platform this year is the establishment of a state-run bank.

Well, Laura Wells joins us here in San Francisco. Laura, welcome to Democracy Now! So, what happened?

LAURA WELLS: Well, I was—someone who thought that democracy was important in this state had tickets and thought that I should be in the room, gave me those tickets, and—a friend and I. And we were on the steps outside the room of the governor’s debate, to which I had an invitation letter, actually, as a candidate who had won the primary for the Green Party. And suddenly—

...

AMY GOODMAN: What are the rules?

LAURA WELLS: The rules are, as the—the letter said, "Congratulations on your win. The debates will be happening. Every candidate who gets a ten percent result will be included." And they don’t—in the surveys, LA Times, PPIC, the Public Policy Institute of California, or the field poll. And they don’t tell you what the question is. Now, if the question were, "Do you want a debate with just the Democrats and the Republicans?" which I’m beginning to call the Titanic parties, but the answer would be a resounding, "No, we don’t want that kind of debate here in California." But they don’t tell you the question. A couple of friends of mine did tell me the question, because they were surveyed. The question was, "Who do you prefer? Meg Whitman or Jerry Brown?" They don’t even say "other." And then, when they report the results, it’s something like "Meg Whitman, 41; Jerry Brown, 41; 18 percent undecided." Not even "other." And so, add that to the lack of coverage, which I would forego $140 million if I had the no-cost media coverage and put out our Green Party values, which the Green values are California values.

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http://www.democracynow.org/2010/10/14/green_party_candidate_excluded_from_california

[Gman]

1. Good.

We don't need any more votes than necessary bleeding off from Brown.

[Luminous Animal]

2. Yay democracy!

[Luminous Animal]

3. It's time for California to move to a parliamentary democratic system.

The fucking state house gridlock is killing us.

[Starry Messenger]

4. k & r

They'll do anything to keep talk of repealing Prop 13 out of the public discourse.