The “Gary Johnson Rule” for debates is alive and well

October 7, 2011

October 7, 2011, Santa Fe, NM -- A senior advisor to Governor Gary Johnson’s presidential campaign released the following statement today regarding Governor Johnson’s exclusion from the Bloomberg/Washington Post debate next week in New Hampshire:

Ron Nielson, senior advisor, said, “When Governor Johnson was excluded from the NBC/Politico debate last month, it was speculated that there was a ‘Gary Johnson Rule’ in effect to insure that he would not be on the stage. Despite the fact that it was a bit suspicious that NBC and Politico came up with a 4% polling threshold – just high enough to exclude Governor Johnson, we didn’t necessarily buy into the ‘Rule’ theory. Then, CNN, who has used a 2% threshold, does a poll in August and Governor Johnson gets 2%, higher than Jon Huntsman and Rick Santorum. What does CNN do? They stopped including us in their polls, obviously reducing his chances of ‘qualifying’ for their next debate. A ‘Gary Johnson Rule’? Maybe.

“Now, we see the criteria for next week’s Bloomberg/Washington Post debate, and there is the clearest ‘Gary Johnson Rule’ yet. To be included, they say a candidate must have participated in three debates. Gary has participated in two. And for good measure, they included a fundraising threshold that we didn’t meet – as though that is relevant to anyone’s qualifications for President.

“As the campaign progresses and it becomes more and more complicated to exclude Gary Johnson from debates, perhaps the national media should simplify the Gary Johnson Rule with criteria that just require that candidates not be named Gary Johnson.” It would save a lot of time and effort.

“Or, maybe they should just admit that Gary Johnson has a message that deserves to be heard in this campaign, whether they like that message or not”.