The two-party system (and with it, American democracy) is broken.



An admittedly bi-partisan commission, the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC), has organized three debates for the 2017 gubernatorial elections designed to exclude third party and independent challengers who will be on the ballot for New Jersey Governor and Lt. Governor.

Co-sponsored by Montclair State University, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, William Paterson University, Rutgers University, NJTV, WNET, C-SPAN, WABC-TV, WPVI-TV, Univision NY & Philly, NJ Advance Media, NJBIZ, NJ Spotlight, El Diario, League of Women Voters NJ, Lead NJ, National Association of Latino Elected Officials, PSE&G, WCBS-TV, WKYW-TV, The Record, and other Gannett New Jersey newspapers, these debates represent a farcical exclusion of important ideas and voices.

We, the People of New Jersey and of these United States, demand that all candidates who will be on the ballot in November be included in all three debates.

We call upon all debate sponsors to publicly affirm this basic standard of democratic integrity.



We also call upon the Democratic gubernatorial nominee Phil Murphy and the Republican gubernatorial nominee Kimberly Guadagno to publicly express their desire for third party and independent candidates to be included.



#OpenTheNJGovDebates!