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Mountain Party candidate sounds off on debate exclusion

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — The Mountain Party’s gubernatorial candidate sounded off on the choice to include only Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jim Justice and Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Cole on the debate stage.

“Most voters are way beyond the elementary blue birds and red bird labels,” Charlotte Pritt said on Thursday’s edition of “The Mike Queen Show” on The AJR News Network. “They are looking for someone like Charlotte Pritt who has a legislative record that’s clearly for the people. Someone like Charlotte Pritt who will go into the community and say, ‘What’s happening here?’ And, who will respond.”

Pritt, who ran a write-in campaign in 1992 and ran as the Democratic nominee in 1996, said third party candidates were included during her second run in 1996.

“We didn’t think about people being excluded,” she said. “In all real democracies–even Russia has four different parties.”

Aaron Blake of The Washington Post explained in “The Fix” why third parties often have a difficult time winning elections or gaining influence in U.S. politics.

Coincidentally, the 1996 gubernatorial election was the last election where a third party candidate made the debate stage in West Virginia.

In the most recent MetroNews West Virginia Poll, conducted during the month of August, Pritt captured 8 percent of support among the 435 people polled.

Pritt maintains that there is very little difference between the two major-party candidates–saying the debate would have benefited from additional participants.

That’s a criticism that has drawn the ire of the West Virginia Democratic Party in the past.

“They’re the same,” she said. “They are absolutely the same, and Joe Manchin’s going to be controlling the Governor’s seat as he has since 2004. Frankly, that has not boded well for the state of West Virginia.”

Pritt also criticized the lack of specifics from the two major party candidates during their two debates.

“I would like to see more problem solving,” she said. “I would have liked to have seen more from them about what they need to. And, quite frankly, all of us who are going to be on the ballot should have been on the stage.”

The last MetroNews West Virginia Poll also found Libertarian Party candidate David Moran with five percent support.

A GOP-backed poll that sampled voters last month found Pritt and Moran at three and two percent, respectively.

MetroNews/AJR reached out to representatives from both officially recognized state parties. Neither representative was certain as to what their candidates would need to do to become part of the process in the future.

Mountain Party Communications Director Tom Rhule said they had never been provided with a specific reason or threshold that would allow them to participate in debates.

He did say that AARP chose not to include Charlotte Pritt due to the Mountain Party’s 2.5 percent vote share in the 2012 race.

WV Libertarian Party Chairman Michael S. Wilson similarly said he was unsure what his party or party’s candidates would need to do to be included in future debates.

West Virginia Broadcaster’s Association Executive Director Michele Crist said the Association makes the difficult decision based on time constraints.

Primarily, she said, the debates are a tool to educate the public, and she believes adding candidates takes away from the informational aspect of the debate event.

The WVBA/CityNet debate hosted on Tuesday night was the second and final debate of the West Virginia gubernatorial election.





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