Today's long-awaited debate between Democratic Gov. Gray Davis and Republican Bill Simon could be scrapped over a dispute about what to do with Green Party candidate Peter Camejo.
Simon has threatened to pull out if the Los Angeles Times, the debate's sponsor, does not allow Camejo to attend as his guest. Davis' campaign has said the governor won't show up if Camejo is even in the audience.
Camejo said Sunday that he has been banned from the debate, invited to attend and then barred once again by the Times, all in the course of a day. He plans to be there, invitation in hand, for the noon debate, which is the only one scheduled in the campaign.
"All I'm asking for is the most minimal respect," he said. "If the governor is so insane that he won't debate Bill Simon because I'm in the room, that's his problem, not mine."
The Times responded Sunday afternoon with a prepared statement saying that Camejo is not going to be allowed in the newspaper's downtown headquarters, where the debate is scheduled to take place.
"The Camejo campaign has made several attempts to place their candidate into the debate or into the media room on the debate day," David Garcia, a spokesman for the Times, said in the statement. "This pattern of behavior has led us to decide that we're not willing to risk the integrity of the debate" by allowing Camejo to attend.
Earlier Sunday, Roger Salazar, a spokesman for the governor's campaign, called the Times to ask what was going to be done with Camejo. According to Salazar, a newspaper spokesman said the request by the Simon campaign "obviously presents the Times with an interesting decision."
"I told him that if Mr. Camejo were to be in the building, it would present us with an interesting decision as well," Salazar said.
While Davis has said for months that he would not appear at any debate that included Camejo, the new dispute broke out after Simon invited the Green Party candidate to attend the debate as his personal guest.
When Simon turned in his guest list to the Times on Friday, however, newspaper officials said Camejo was not welcome.
"It's outrageous that a newspaper would censor a guest list," Sal Russo, one of Simon's political advisers, said Sunday. "The debate rules allow us to invite a certain number of guests, and we have an absolute right to invite whomever we want."
Each candidate is allowed a limited number of guests. The other guests in the small auditorium are by invitation of the Times.
A delegation of Simon campaign officials, led by senior adviser Ed Rollins, met with Times assistant managing editor Joseph Russin for nearly an hour Saturday evening and reportedly threatened to pull Simon from the debate if Camejo was not allowed in the audience.
"I'm confident that at the end of the day, the Times will do the right thing and allow all the guests invited by Gov. Davis and Bill Simon to attend, " Russo said.
If the Times continues to bar Camejo, "that will make it interesting, won't it?" he added.
Simon decided to invite Camejo "because he thought he owed Camejo the common decency and courtesy to allow him to sit in the audience after he was kept out the debate," Russo said.
But there has been more than a little politics behind Simon's embrace of the Green Party standard-bearer. Camejo had asked Simon's campaign for the invitation early last week. Simon probably approved the request because Camejo,
a former Socialist candidate for president, is far more likely to attract liberal voters disenchanted with Davis than he is to cut into Simon's conservative base.
That is one reason Davis has refused to appear with Camejo, while Simon has been an unlikely cheerleader for the Green Party hopeful.
The Times' decision to keep Camejo out of the debate audience was the last straw for Simon, Russo said.
The Republican's campaign already was unhappy with the newspaper for bowing to conditions set by the governor for the debate. Besides barring Camejo, the newspaper agreed to schedule the debate for noon, rather than at an evening hour that could attract a wider audience. Live coverage of the debate also is being limited to stations owned by the Tribune Co., parent of the Times, except in the Bay Area, where KTVU, Channel 2, will broadcast it at noon.
"This all reflects the views of Gray Davis, which is to have as small an audience as possible for the debate," Russo said. "The Times has made it pretty clear that Davis is calling the shots."
A spokesman for the Times refused to comment on Simon's complaints. The newspaper's statement said that "we feel California voters would be best served by a serious discussion of the issues by the two leading gubernatorial candidates."
The governor's tough stand on debate rules is part of politics, Salazar insisted.
"Being an incumbent has its advantages," he said, while Simon's complaints "are what challengers do to make noise."
The governor had an agreement with the Times that Camejo would not be any part of the debate.
"I said (to the Times) that we had talked about this before and that we were not interested in being involved in a circus atmosphere," Salazar said.
The Times had made it clear from the start that neither of the candidates would be allowed to use props at the debate, he said, "and clearly the Simon campaign wants to use Mr. Camejo as a prop."
Green Party backers, who say polls indicate that most California voters want to see Camejo in the debate, plan to protest outside the Times building before today's debate.
Camejo "is welcome to hang out outside the building in the protest zone or wherever," Salazar said.
DEBATE COVERAGE
The gubernatorial debate between Democratic Gov. Gray Davis and Republican Bill Simon is scheduled from noon to 1 p.m. today in Los Angeles. -- Television: Scheduled to be broadcast live in the Bay Area by KTVU, Channel 2, and in Sacramento by KXTL, Channel 40. San Francisco's KQED, Channel 9, is to rebroadcast the debate at 2 p.m.
-- Radio: Scheduled to broadcast live by KQED-FM, 88.5. KCBS-AM, 740, is to rebroadcast the debate at 8 p.m.
E-mail the writers at jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com and sherel@sfchronicle.com.
