Locked out?

Locked out?
Third-party candidates say press is unfair

Oct. 14, 2000

By Janelle Holden
Journal Staff Writer

The Reform and Libertarian party candidates running in a four-way race to represent Congressional District 3 are charging unfair treatment by media and debate sponsors.

"It’s been outrageous that we have nearly one-third Republican, Democrat, and third-party independent voters in this state, and that each of these organizations cares so strongly about their own agendas that they don’t care to let a full third of the state be represented in the debates," complained Drew Sakson, the Libertarian party candidate.

Sakson and Victor Good, who is running on the Reform ticket, said Wednesday that they had been excluded from debates held in Grand Junction, Pueblo, and Glenwood Springs. The debates were respectively sponsored by Club-20, Action 22, and the League of Women Voters, and included Republican incumbent Scott McInnis and Democratic challenger Curtis Imrie.

"In Pueblo, the AFL-CIO endorsed the Democratic candidate without ever talking to me," complained Good. "It’s just that this is the way they’ve always done it, this the party they’ve always endorsed, and they’re ignoring the cries of the American people who want a third-party voice."

"I’m constantly hearing from people about debates that have occurred," commented Sakson. "People ask, ‘Well, how come you weren’t there?’ and I have to say, ‘Well, no one asked me.’ "

However, Sakson said he was pleased that Grand Junction’s NBC station allowed each of the candidates 83 seconds of air time to introduce themselves to the public.

But Good charged that the editors of the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel didn’t contact him before they made their endorsements, and the Denver Post’s editors told him that they "never endorse third-party candidates."

But Sue O’Brien, the Denver Post’s editorial-page editor, said the Post recently endorsed Libertarian candidate Steven Lee for a seat in the Colorado Senate.

"We did endorse one Libertarian, and we have sent questionaires to other third-party candidates who have asked for endorsement interviews. So we don’t have any policy against considering them," said O’Brien.

Good said he has yet to receive a questionnaire, but Sakson said he had received one.

O’Brien’s deputy, columnist Bob Ewegen, said that their editorial board sent questionnaires automatically to the Republican, Democratic, and Libertarian candidates across the state, and to any other candidate who requested one. The questionnaires were the basis of the Post’s endorsements.

Ewegen said that Good had requested an interview with the Post’s editorial board. "He called four different times and wanted an interview. And I said that we were not doing interviews with third-party candidates as an editorial board. . . . I did not know, when I was talking with Mr. Good that he had not received a questionnaire," he explained.

But Ewegen defended the Post’s endorsement process.

"The reason we didn’t interview Mr. Good is that we didn’t interview anybody. Mr. Good is getting exactly the same treatment as Scott McInnis," he said.