On The Front Lines
Rutherford Inst. Calls on Sen. Hurt, Sponsoring Orgs. and News Media to Stop Impeding Democratic Process, Include Jeffrey Clark in Debates
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- Denouncing the exclusion of independent candidate Jeffrey Clark from critical candidates' debates being sponsored by The Sorensen Institute and others, The Rutherford Institute is calling on the various sponsors and news media to take the lead in calling for Senator Robert Hurt (R-VA) to stop impeding the democratic process and end his boycott of tri-candidate debates for the Fifth District congressional race. Unlike incumbent Tom Perriello (D-VA), who has expressed his willingness to engage both opponents in debate, Hurt has repeatedly refused to participate in any candidate debates in which Clark is a participant. Moreover, as Rutherford Institute president John Whitehead points out, when the sponsoring organizations decline to extend an invitation to the candidates' debates to Clark, and when the media provide televised coverage of such exclusive debates, they are enabling the self-serving interests of one politician to trump the interests of Virginia voters and the transcendent value of the free marketplace of ideas.
The Rutherford Institute's letters to Senator Hurt, The Sorensen Institute and the media are available at www.rutherford.org.
"A candidates' debate presents a unique and powerful opportunity for the education of voters. It would be tragic for one candidate's political snobbery to prevail over the people's interests in making the most informed decisions possible," stated Whitehead. "After all, the problems facing our state and our nation are grave and growing more complex by the day. The last thing the people of this Commonwealth need is another politician subjugating our freedoms for his or her own personal gain."
The series of letters issued by The Rutherford Institute were prompted by reports that Clark will be excluded from a televised October 21 debate hosted by The Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership. While several organizations have invited all three candidates to engage in the debates, Hurt has refused to participate in any debates to which Clark is invited. As Whitehead pointed out in his letter to The Sorensen Institute, "by actively excluding independent candidate Jeffrey Clark from the debate and limiting it to the two so-called establishment party candidates, Sorensen not only appears to favor Mr. Hurt and Mr. Perriello over Mr. Clark, but also appears to tacitly support Mr. Hurt's boycott of any debates including Mr. Clark."
In a separate letter to various news outlets who will be covering the debates, Whitehead urged: "As the trustee of particular freedom under the First Amendment, we hope and expect that you will join us in insisting that critical candidates' debates in the Commonwealth be true marketplaces of ideas rather than contrived venues limited solely to the established political elite."
In his letter to Hurt, Whitehead denounced his tactics in relation to Clark and the candidates' debates as reflecting either "a dismal understanding of the First Amendment's values of 'uninhibited, robust' debate and the free marketplace of ideas, or a lack of commitment to upholding the document that Abraham Lincoln referred to as the 'only safeguard of our liberties.'"
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