Commission on Presidential Debates

The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) is a nonprofit corporation established in 1987 under the joint sponsorship of the Democratic and Republican political parties in the United States.[1][3] The CPD sponsors and produces debates for U.S. presidential and vice-presidential candidates and undertakes research and educational activities relating to the debates. It has run all of the presidential debates held since 1988. The Commission's debates are sponsored by private contributions from foundations and corporations[4] as well as fees from hosting institutions.[5]

Commission on Presidential Debates
PredecessorLeague of Women Voters (sponsor)
Formation1987 (1987)
TypeNon-profit, 501(c)(3) corporation[1]
PurposeOrganization of the United States presidential and vice-presidential election debates
Co-Chairs
[2]
Executive Director
Janet H. Brown
Websitewww.debates.org

The Commission's exclusion of third party candidates from the debates has been the subject of controversy and legal challenges.

History

Debates before the CPD

The first televised presidential debates were held between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy during the 1960 campaign. No general-election debates were done in 1964, and Richard Nixon refused to participate in any debate in 1968 and 1972. Beginning with the 1976 election, the League of Women Voters sponsored the televised Gerald Ford–Jimmy Carter debates, followed by the John B. Anderson–Ronald Reagan and Reagan–Carter debates for the 1980 election, and Reagan and Walter Mondale in 1984.

Formation

After studying the election process in 1985, the bipartisan National Commission on Elections recommended "[t]urning over the sponsorship of Presidential debates to the two major parties".[3] The CPD was established in 1987 by the chairmen of the Democratic and Republican Parties to "take control of the Presidential debates".[3] The commission was staffed by members from the two parties and chaired by the heads of the Democratic and Republican parties, Paul G. Kirk and Frank Fahrenkopf.[3] At a 1987 press conference announcing the commission's creation, Fahrenkopf said that the commission was not likely to include third-party candidates in debates, and Kirk said he personally believed they should be excluded from the debates.[3]

In 1988, the League of Women Voters withdrew its sponsorship of the presidential debates after the George H. W. Bush and Michael Dukakis campaigns secretly agreed to a "memorandum of understanding" that would decide which candidates could participate in the debates, which individuals would be panelists (and therefore able to ask questions), and the height of the lecterns. The League rejected the demands and released a statement saying that it was withdrawing support for the debates because "the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter."[6]

The CPD has sponsored the debates in 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020.

Washington University in St. Louis has been selected by the Commission to host more presidential and vice-presidential debates than any institution in history.[7]

Leadership

The Commission is headed by Frank Fahrenkopf, a former Republican National Committee chairman, and Dorothy S. Ridings, the president and chief executive officer of the Council on Foundations. As of 2019, the board of directors consisted of John C. Danforth, Charles Gibson, John Griffen, Jane Harman, Antonia Hernandez, Reverend John I. Jenkins, Jim Lehrer, Newton N. Minow, Richard D. Parsons, Olympia Snowe, and Kenneth Wollack. Janet H. Brown is the current Executive director.[8]

Criticism
Christopher Hitchens speaking at a September 2000 third-party protest at the Commission's headquarters

In 2000, the CPD established a rule that for a candidate to be included in the national debates he or she must garner at least 15% support across five national polls.[9] This rule has been controversial[10] as it has effectively excluded U.S. parties other than the two major parties.

In 2003, a 501(c)(3) called Open Debates was formed[11] to advocate debates that included third parties and that allowed exchanges among the candidates.[12] Criticism by Open Debates of CPD for the 2012 election include the secret contract between CPD and the Obama and Romney campaigns (a complaint joined by 17 other organizations including Judicial Watch)[13] and CPD informing the candidates of the debate topics in advance.[14]

In 2004, citing the CPD's 32 page debate contract, Connie Rice on NPR's The Tavis Smiley Show called the CPD debates "news conferences," and "a reckless endangerment of democracy."[15] On October 8, 2004, two presidential candidates, Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik and Green Party candidate David Cobb, were arrested while protesting against CPD for excluding third-party candidates from the nationally televised debates in St. Louis, Missouri.[16]

In 2008, the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) labeled the CPD a "secretive tax-exempt organization". The CPI analyzed the 2004 financials of the CPD, and found that 93 percent of the contributions to the non-profit CPD came from just six donors, the names of all of which were blacked out on the donor list provided to the CPI.[17]

During the last week of September, 2012, three sponsors withdrew their sponsorship of the 2012 debates for not including third parties: BBH New York, YWCA USA, and Philips Electronics.[18][19]

On October 16, 2012, Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein and vice-presidential nominee Cheri Honkala were arrested for disorderly conduct while trying to take part in the second presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.[20][21][22] The two women claimed they were taken to a warehouse, and strapped for eight hours to chairs with plastic wrist restraints before being released.[23][24]

Lawsuits

Multiple lawsuits have been filed by third-party candidates challenging the CPD's policy of requiring a candidate to have 15% support in national polls to be included in presidential debates. The lawsuits have challenged the requirement on a number of grounds, including claims that it violates Federal Election Commission (FEC) rules and that it violates antitrust laws; none of the lawsuits has been successful.

During the 2000 election, Green Party candidate Ralph Nader filed a complaint with the FEC, on the basis that corporate contributions to the CPD violate the Federal Election Campaign Act. The FEC ruled that the CPD's funding sources did not violate that act, and in 2005 the D.C. Circuit Court declined to overrule the FEC.[25]

In 2012, Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson filed an antitrust lawsuit against the CPD, the Republican National Committee, and the Democratic National Committee in D.C. Circuit Court, citing the Sherman Act and claiming "restraint of trade" for denying competition to, for example, potentially receive the $400,000 annual presidential salary.[26] The case was dismissed in 2014 due to lack of jurisdiction.[27]

In September 2015, the Libertarian and Green parties – along with Johnson and Jill Stein – filed another lawsuit against the CPD, the Democratic National Committee, the Republican National Committee, Barack Obama, and Mitt Romney, charging violation of federal antitrust laws.[28][29] The case was dismissed in August 2016.[30][31][32] In February 2017 the suits by Johnson, Stein et al were reheard and the judge ruled that the Federal Election Commission had not provided sufficient justification for its decision not to engage in rulemaking, and ordered the Commission to either provide a more sufficient justification for its position, or to alter the Commission's rules.[33][34]

In October 2016 a federal court judge agreed to hear oral arguments in a separate lawsuit.[35] The suit challenged the CPD's nonprofit status on the grounds that it is funded by corporate money and favors the two major parties.[36] The Internal Revenue Service allows 501(c)(3) organizations to engage in "voter education activities (including presenting public forums [...]) conducted in a non-partisan manner," provided the activities specifically do not "[favor] a candidate or group of candidates."[37] In March 2019, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted the FEC’s cross-motion for summary judgment and denied plaintiffs’ motion in the lawsuit, Level the Playing Field, et al. v. FEC.[38]

In June 2020, the DC District Court again ruled in favor of the CPD, ruling against the Libertarian and Green parties. “There is no legal requirement that the commission make it easier for independent candidates to run for president of the United States,” the court said.[39]

gollark: `/tmp` *is* in RAM.
gollark: Currently attempting to import an SQLite database into PostgreSQL by using the `.dump` thing on each table and manually running `sed` over several-gigabyte SQL files. Yaaaaaay!
gollark: Apparently you can run out of /tmp space.
gollark: My direct port of the search thing to PostgreSQL is done, but I do really need to rework the search function a lot.
gollark: Thanks to this nice JS library, the Postgres-based code even looks nicer than the SQLite-based code!

References
  1. "The Commission on Presidential Debates: An Overview". debates.org. Commission on Presidential Debates. n.d. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
  2. "CPD: Commission Leadership".
  3. Gailey, Phil (February 19, 1987). "Democrats and Republicans Form Panel to Hold Presidential Debates". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-10-07.
  4. "CPD: National Debate Sponsors". Debates.org. Retrieved 2016-04-22.
  5. Fitzgerald, Rick. "U-M will make bid to host 2020 presidential debate". The University Record. The University of Michigan. Retrieved 2019-10-11.
  6. "League of Women Voters of the United States: League Refuses to "Help Perpetuate a Fraud"". League of Women Voters. October 3, 1988. Retrieved 2012-10-04.
  7. "History of debates at Washington University in St. Louis". Newsroom. Washington University in St. Louis. 2008-06-26. Retrieved 2012-10-04.
  8. "CPD: Commission Leadership". Debates.org. Retrieved 2018-04-19.
  9. Raskin, Jamin (2003). Overruling Democracy: The Supreme Court Versus the American People. Routledge. p. 126. ISBN 978-0-415-93439-8. Retrieved 2012-10-04.
  10. "Presidential debate sponsors drop over exclusion of Gary Johnson". Washington Post. 2012-10-03. Retrieved 2012-10-13.
  11. "Open Debates Inc. on Guidestar". Guidestar. 2003. Retrieved 2012-09-29.
  12. Paul Weyrich; Randall Robinson (2003-11-12). "End the Debates Before They Start". New York Times. Retrieved 2012-09-29.
  13. George Farah (2012-09-27). "18 Pro-Democracy Groups Call On Presidential Debate Commission to Make Secret Contract Public". Open Debates. Archived from the original on 2015-07-01. Retrieved 2012-09-29.
  14. George Farah (2012-09-20). "Open Debates Criticizes Presidential Debate Commission for Informing Candidates of Debate Topics". Open Debates. Archived from the original on 2015-07-01. Retrieved 2012-09-29.
  15. The Tavis Smiley Show. "Connie Rice: Top 10 Secrets They Don't Want You to Know About the Debates". National Public Radio. Retrieved 2012-10-04.
  16. "Opponents fail to stop US debate". BBC News. 2004-10-13. Retrieved 2016-09-26.
  17. "Two-party debates: A Corporate-Funded, Party-Created Commission Decides Who Debates and Who Stays Home". Center for Public Integrity. 2008-09-18. Retrieved 2012-10-02.
  18. Dylan Byers (2012-09-30). "Philips pulls presidential debate sponsorship". Politico. Retrieved 2012-09-30.
  19. Elizabeth Flock (2012-10-01). "Two Sponsors Pull Out From Debates Over Exclusion Of Gary Johnson". U.S. News. Retrieved 2012-10-01.
  20. Zelman, Joanna (October 16, 2012). "Jill Stein Arrested Before Hofstra Debate". Huffington Post. Retrieved October 16, 2012.
  21. "Green Party's Stein Talks Arrest, Presidential Debates". WNYC. October 18, 2012. Archived from the original on April 16, 2013.
  22. Amy Goodman (October 18, 2012). "Green party candidate Jill Stein's arrest highlights presidential debate stitch-up". London: The Guardian.
  23. "Green Party Candidates Arrested, Shackled to Chairs For 8 Hours After Trying to Enter Hofstra Debate". Democracy Now!. October 17, 2012.
  24. Collins, Eliza (2016-09-26). "Green Party candidate Jill Stein escorted off debate premises, resorts to Twitter". USA Today. Retrieved 2016-10-19.
  25. John Hagelin, et al. v. Federal Election Commission (D.C. Cir. 2005-08-09). Text
  26. Miller, Zeke. "Gary Johnson Files Anti-Trust Lawsuit To Get Into Presidential Debates". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
  27. Winger, Richard (17 January 2014). "Gary Johnson's Complaint Against Commission on Presidential Debates Dismissed on Technicality, but His Case Against Major Parties Remains Alive". ballot-access.org. Retrieved 1 June 2014.
  28. "Gary E Johnson et al v. Commission on Presidential Debates; Republican National Committee; Democratic National Committee; Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr.; Michael D. McCurry; Barack Obama; and Willard Mitt Romney" (PDF). Pdfserver.amlaw.com. Retrieved 2016-04-22.
  29. "Libertarian and Green parties sue the Commission on Presidential Debates for a spot on the stage". Washington Times. Retrieved 2016-04-22.
  30. "Johnson Et Al V. Commission On Presidential Debates Et Al - -DC". Open-public-records.com. Retrieved 2016-08-03.
  31. "JOHNSON et al v. COMMISSION ON PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES et al :: District Of Columbia District Court :: Federal Civil Lawsuit No. 1:15-cv-01580". Plainsite.org. Retrieved 2016-08-03.
  32. Gerstein, Josh (August 5, 2016). "Judge rejects third parties' suit against debate commission". Politico. Retrieved August 11, 2016.
  33. Hasen, Rick (March 8, 2017). "Campaign Finance FEC Won't Appeal Ruling on Presidential Debates". electionlawblog.org. Retrieved February 19, 2019.
  34. Level the Playing Field, et al., v. Federal Election Commission (D.D.C. February 1, 2017). Text
  35. "Level The Playing Field, Peter Ackerman, Green Party Of The United States, And Libertarian National Committee, Inc. Plaintiffs, V. Federal Election Commission Defendant" (PDF). www.shapiroarato.com. Retrieved 2016-10-06.
  36. "Emails, Tax Returns, and Two Party Preservation". www.johnsonweld.com. Archived from the original on 2016-10-09. Retrieved 2016-10-06.
  37. "The Restriction of Political Campaign Intervention by Section 501(c)(3) Tax-Exempt Organizations". Irs.gov. Internal Revenue Service. 2012-08-14. Archived from the original on 2 December 2010. Retrieved 9 September 2012.
  38. "Court grants FEC summary judgment in Level the Playing Field, et al. v. FEC". FEC.gov. April 9, 2019. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
  39. Ryan, Tim (2020-06-12). "Court Rejects Push to Have Debates Welcome 3rd-Party Candidates". Courthouse News Service. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
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