Senate hopefuls in Virginia decry being left out of debate

Two candidates in Virginia's 2012 U.S. Senate race are accusing state news organizations of bias for excluding all but two candidates from a planned debate.

The Dec. 7 event, sponsored by the Virginia Capitol Correspondents Association and Virginia Associated Press Managing Editors with help from The Associated Press, is to include Democrat Tim Kaine, a former governor, and Republican George Allen, a former senator and governor. It is being held six months before they compete in June primaries that will decide their respective party's nominee for the November 2012 general election.

Allen faces four Republican opponents; Kaine has two Democratic rivals.

"My biggest concern is that they're not the nominees of their parties," said GOP candidate Jamie Radtke, arguing that excluding the other candidates amounts to "circumventing the entire electoral process."

Republican candidate E.W. Jackson, a Chesapeake minister, also complained about the exclusion.

The debate organizers limited participants to declared candidates who are favored by at least 15 percent of respondents in independent published primary polls. Participants also must raise campaign funds by Oct. 31 that total at least 20 percent of those raised by their party's top fundraising candidate.

Leaders of the news organizations declined to discuss the issue. The correspondents group and The AP issued a joint statement Wednesday night: "The organizing committee of this debate... has received a number of concerns about the criteria, which were carefully discussed and established beforehand. It's commonplace to have criteria for participation in a debate. We've sponsored debates in the past and have had criteria."

Spokespeople for the Kaine and Allen campaigns said they did not place restrictions on who could participate.

The Virginian-Pilot is a member of The Associated Press and correspondents group but was not consulted about the debate plans.

Radtke, a Chesterfield County resident who organized a statewide tea party federation, said she was told she doesn't meet the requirements to take part. She said debate organizers are ignoring a July poll by Public Policy Polling in which 31 percent of respondents said they would support her if she were the GOP candidate in a general election against Kaine. The poll involved automated phone interviews.

"That's well over the 15 percent threshold," Radtke said. "You can't say we're not a credible candidate."

A poll conducted this month by Quinnipiac University Polling Institute determined that Allen and Kaine would split the vote in a general election; however, the pollsters did not ask about other candidates.

Radtke lags far behind Allen in fundraising as of June 30, the most recent report available. Allen has raised $2.7 million for his Senate bid, compared to $247,000 by Radtke, according to reports compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. Other GOP candidates, who all reported raising less money than Radtke, include Jackson, Great Falls businessman Tim Donner and Virginia Beach attorney David McCormick.

Kaine has raised $2.2 million, compared to $116,713 reported by Reston resident Julien Modica. The third Democrat, business consultant Courtney Lynch, launched her campaign in August and will not file her first fundraising report until this fall.

Kelly McBride, a faculty member at The Poynter Institute who specializes in media ethics, said setting baselines for who may participate in debates based on polling can be acceptable to avoid too many candidates who can't make a credible run for office.

"I think that for journalists to take their responsibility to inform the voting process seriously, they have to liberally interpret who gets in the debate," McBride said. "If it's a borderline call... wouldn't you naturally - based on your democratic values - tilt towards inclusion?"

But excluding candidates because they don't have enough campaign money in the bank "is problematic," she said.

"There are lots of candidates who raise money late in the race."

It's important, she said, that journalists explain why restrictions were placed on who may participate.

"This is an area where the mainstream media has never had to defend its practices," McBride said. "What is new is people who have been shut out of the process can go to their constituents and say, 'This is how the mainstream media is keeping you out.' "

Bill Bartel, (757) 446-2398, bill.bartel@pilotonline.com