Commission On Presidential Debates - Criticism

Criticism

In 1988, the League of Women Voters withdrew its sponsorship of the presidential debates after the George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis campaigns secretly agreed to a "memorandum of understanding" that would decide which candidates could participate in the debates, which individuals would be panelists (and therefore able to ask questions), and the height of the podiums. The League rejected the demands and released a statement saying that they were withdrawing support for the debates because "the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter."

At a 1987 press conference announcing the commission's creation, Fahrenkopf said that the commission was not likely to include third-party candidates in debates, and Paul G. Kirk, Democratic national chairman, said he personally believed they should be excluded from the debates.

In 2003, a 501(c)(3) called Open Debates was formed to advocate debates that included third parties and that allowed exchanges among the candidates. Criticism by Open Debates of CPD for the 2012 election include the secret contract between CPD and the Obama and Romney campaigns (a complaint joined by 17 other organizations including Judicial Watch) and CPD informing the candidates of the debate topics in advance.

In 2004, citing the CPD's 32 page debate contract, Connie Rice on NPR's The Tavis Smiley Show called the CPD debates "news conferences," and "a reckless endangerment of democracy." On October 8, 2004, Green Party candidate David Cobb was arrested in an act of civil disobedience, breaking a police line while protesting the Commission on Presidential Debates for excluding third-party candidates from the nationally televised debates in St. Louis, Missouri. Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik also was arrested in the protest.

In 2008, the Center for Public Integrity labeled the CPD a "secretive tax-exempt organization." CPI analyzed the 2004 financials of the CPD, and found that 93 percent of the contributions to the non-profit CPD came from just six donors, the names of all of which were blacked out on the donor list provided to the CPI.

In August, 2012 an informal group called Help the Commission on Presidential Debates, as a reaction to the CPD website having no contact information, offered to print out comments sent to them and hand-deliver the printouts to CPD. They claim success in getting the CPD to post an e-mail address, but since then attempts to hand-deliver printed comments have been met with threats of arrest.

Also in August, 2012 a second informal group called Occupy the CPD was formed and a month later members visited Romney campaign headquarters in Boston dressed in chicken costumes carrying signs reading "too chicken to face Jill Stein in a rematch" and presented a Romney staffer with "The World's Biggest Chicken Award." Jill Stein had previously debated Mitt Romney during the 2002 Massachusetts gubernatorial election after which The Boston Globe declared her "the only adult in the room."

During the last week of September, 2012, three sponsors withdrew their sponsorship of the 2012 debates for not including third parties: BBH New York, YWCA USA and Philips Electronics.