Cliff Hyra, pictured with his wife, Stephanie, and their three children, is the Libertarian Party candidate for Virginia governor. (Handout Photo: Cliff Hyra for Governor of Virginia)

Again, the establishment political parties have used their influence with the bar association to reduce participation in the electoral process, this time in Virginia. The Post’s July 22 Metro article “Libertarian candidate not invited to debate” reported that the Virginia Bar Association found a reason to exclude the Libertarian gubernatorial candidate from debating the Democratic and Republican candidates. Any thoughtful person knows the real reason for making this decision: There are only downsides to the major-party candidates having to debate a person who will clearly demonstrate that they do not and cannot have much to offer the voters.

Given the recent presidential race between major candidates with extremely high unfavorable ratings, I would think the Virginia Bar Association would be interested in supporting all reasonable opportunities to provide alternative information and candidates to the Virginia (and in three years, the national) electorate.

David Griggs, Columbia