Campaign 2016 Debate

Construction crews hang part of the set as preparations continue for Monday's presidential debate between Democratic Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump. The Commission on Presidential Debates' rules didn't allow third-party candidates Gary Johnson and Jill Stein to participate.

(J. David Ake/AP Photo)

By Hugh Brunk

For the first time since 2000, a third party presidential candidate will be on the ballot in all 50 states. Still, Libertarian party candidate Gary Johnson won't be getting an invitation to the first presidential debate. The Commission on Presidential Debates issued their decision recently. Though he's polling as well as or better than past third-party candidates, Johnson hasn't gotten past the 15 percent polling requirement decreed by the CPD.

Co-chaired by former Republican National Committee chairman Frank Fahrenkopf and former Clinton press secretary Mike McCurry , the "non-partisan" CPD must be one of the best kept secrets of the major political parties. It was formed in 1987 to set the terms of future presidential debates, causing the League of Women Voters to withdraw -- under protest -- their long sponsorship of presidential debates.

After barring independent candidate Ross Perot from the 1996 debates using unspecified criteria, the CPD set forth three criteria in 2000 to be used in determining eligibility in future debates: A candidate must be constitutionally eligible to be president, must be on enough state ballots to have a mathematical chance of winning, and must also reach a level of 15 percent in national polls.

While the first two requirements are reasonable, the 15 percent polling requirement is not.

One might hope that this election year, in which voter dislike of the major party candidates is well-known, the media would report on the alternatives. In an analysis of news stories on ABC, CBS, and NBC during the first eight months this year, the Media Research Center found that Trump and Clinton received 1773 minutes and 1020 minutes of coverage, respectively, while Johnson and Green party candidate Jill Stein got 11 seconds and 3 seconds, respectively. With biased media coverage like that, it's no mystery that 65 percent of voters are currently unaware of Johnson's candidacy and that he hasn't reached 15 percent in the polls chosen by the CPD.

A polling requirement is also not objective, as landline phone, cell phone, and online polling methods each present biases that can be exploited. In a carefully administered online Washington Post survey, Johnson is beating Trump and trails Clinton by just 2 percent in the 18 to 34 age group.

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None of the polls chosen by CPD use online methods, which are more likely to reach the Millennial voters who seem to be more attracted to third parties. Both media coverage and most polls are biased towards traditional "horse race" coverage which favors the major party candidates.

A clear, objective, and truly non-partisan standard needs to be applied to debate eligibility. Simply requiring debate participants to be on the ballot in enough states to win fits these requirements perfectly. The CPD should err on side of inclusion and invite both Gary Johnson and Jill Stein to the second presidential debate in October. Political discourse can only be improved by the inclusion of new ideas, and it is clear that the ideas offered up by the Democrats and Republicans are less popular than ever.

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- Hugh Brunk lives in Southwest Portland.