Minor Candidates to Debate Tuesday
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Eugene Gologursky/WireImage(NEW YORK) — If unenthusiastic voters aren’t satisfied with Monday’s final presidential debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney, they should take comfort: There will be more debating to be had, with an entirely different set of men doing the talking.
Former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson and three other non-major-party presidential candidates will debate on Tuesday, a day after Obama and Romney square off, with former CNN host Larry King moderating their debate of alternatives at the Hilton Chicago.
The debate will feature the Libertarian Party nominee Johnson, Green Party candidate Jill Stein, Constitution Party candidate Virgil Goode, and Justice Party candidate Rocky Anderson.
The debate is being organized by the Free and Equal Elections Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit group founded to “give every candidate a fair chance at winning their respective elections” and “allow voters to vote for a candidate that best represents their values and beliefs.”
No major networks will carry it — at least no major American networks. It will stream online at three outlets: ORA.tv, where King now hosts a show; Russian English-language network Russia Today; and the Free and Equal Elections Foundation website.
None of these candidates were invited to square off with President Obama and Mitt Romney in the series of debates hosted by the Commission on Presidential Debates. Ross Perot was the last third-party candidate to appear in those forums, in 1992.
“We are honored to have Larry King moderate this historic debate,” Christina Tobin, founder of the Free and Equal Elections Foundation, said in a written statement released by the group this week. “The previous debates between President Obama and Governor Romney have failed to address the issues that really concern everyday Americans. From foreign policy, to the economy, to taboo subjects like our diminishing civil liberties and the drug war, Americans deserve a real debate, real solutions and real electoral options.”
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