We will see a couple of weeks of debates as the University of Delaware, WHYY, WDEL and newly launched WDDE-FM radio station hold election year events.
The debates will include candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, U.S. Senate and U.S. House. The location for the WHYY-WDEL debates is Widener University, north Wilmington and the University of Delaware.
The UD-WDDE Newark debate on Tuesday may draw a protest from a group known as Delaware for Inclusive Debates. The group’s Facebook page says a debate among third party candidates, including the Green Party, will be held outside the debate site on the UD campus.
The Green Party has lodged similar protests regarding the presidential debates. In response to a request for a comment from WDDE, spokesperson Susan Swan pointed to university policy and the Debate Advisory Standards Project (a joint project of Pew Center and Knight Center). Among other things, the policy requires candidates to show 10 percent support total in polling. Independent Senate candidate Alex Pires qualified under those standards.
The WHYY-WDEL debates will include the Green Party.
Delaware for Inclusive Debates is a group of Delaware citizens from a coalition of various non-profit activist and community groups calling for the Delaware Debates to be open and non-partisan.
Currently the Delaware Debates (coordinated jointly by the University of Delaware’s Center for Political Communication and Delaware First Media) exclude ALL ballot qualified third party candidates, according to a Facebook posting by the group.
For full details, click on the links below to WDDE and WHYY announcements of debates.
http://www.wdde.org/31483-invited-debates-2012
