CITIZENS' DEBATE COMMISSION OFFERS TO SPONSOR MONTHLY PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES

Open Debates, National Press Building, 529 14th St. NW, Suite 1201, Washington, DC 20045
Press Release

March 16, 2004

Contact: Chris Shaw (202) 628-9195

A series of monthly presidential debates recently suggested by Senator John Kerry has received public support. As an institution designed to stimulate informative presidential debate on pressing national issues, the non-partisan Citizens' Debate Commission is pleased to offer to sponsor those debates.

“The American people would benefit greatly from hearing candidates debate the issues," stated George Farah, executive director of Open Debates and a member of the Citizens' Debate Commission. "Presidential debates are critical forums for the education of voters, and the Citizens' Debate Commission is delighted to host as many of these public forums as possible.”

The Citizens' Debate Commission proposes to host presidential debates featuring innovative and engaging formats. These formats would include follow-up questions, adequate candidate response times, unprecedented candidate-to-candidate questioning, independently selected moderators and panelists, and unscreened town hall questions.

The Citizens' Debate Commission would employ rigorous and objective candidate selection criteria developed by the scholars, civic leaders and elected officials who served on the Appleseed Citizens' Task Force on Fair Debates, a project of the Appleseed Electoral Reform Project at American University Washington College of Law. The Appleseed Task Force criteria invite all candidates on enough state ballots to win an Electoral College majority who either 1) register at five percent in national polls or 2) register a majority in national polls asking eligible voters which candidates they would like to see included in the presidential debates.

The nonpartisan Citizens' Debate Commission consists of seventeen national civic leaders from the left, center and right of the political spectrum. The Citizens' Debate Commission is: John B. Anderson, former U.S. Congressman; Angela "Bay" Buchanan, president of The American Cause; Veronica De La Garza, executive director of the Youth Vote Coalition; Norman Dean, executive director of Friends of the Earth; George Farah, author of No Debate; Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch; Tom Gerety, executive director of the Brennan Center for Justice; Jehmu Greene, executive director of Rock the Vote; Ambassador Alan Keyes; Jeff Milchen, founder of ReclaimDemocracy.org; Larry Noble, former General Counsel of the Federal Election Commission; Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council; Chellie Pingree, president of Common Cause; Randall Robinson, author and founder of TransAfrica; Dan Stein, executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform; Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research; Paul Weyrich, chairman of the Free Congress Foundation.

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