Jim Moore Demands Mondale Debate
"Minnesotans Deserve Equal Access to all of the Candidates Views"
October 31th (sic), 2002
Yesterday morning, I issued in a press release calling for a moratorium on all political advertising in the US Senate Race and replacing them with a series of debates that include all major party candidates. The difficult turn of events as a result of Senator Wellstone's death last Friday has left very little time for Minnesotans to evaluate and contrast the positions of the various candidates. We now only have five days in which to provide this critical information to voters. I am convinced that debates are the best means to reach all Minnesota voters in such a short time frame. Today former Vice President Mondale declared on both WCCO radio and MPR that he only wants one debate and declined to appear on the KSTP/Star Tribune debate rescheduled for tomorrow night. I believe that his position is a disservice to the voters of Minnesota and now demand that he reevaluate his position. Avoiding debates, meeting with a handful of voters and riding on his excellent resume are simply not enough. If he wants to be our US Senator for the next six years, he needs to campaign and earn it clearly differentiating himself from the other candidates. Giving Minnesota voters the ability to compare and contrast all major party candidates in a series of state wide televised debates is simply the most democratic position to take and would be a beautifully respectful honor to Senator Wellstone who cherished debate forums.
Furthermore, I would like to call attention to the media's recent coverage of this race. By shutting down our campaigns through the memorial service Tuesday night as a show of respect to those who perished in last week's crash, my campaign as well as the campaign of Green Party candidate Ray Tricomo were virtually ignored while the media focused on the Senate campaign machinations of the Republican and Democratic parties. It was bad enough that the two big old parties couldn't put politics on hold for a period of mourning. But when their activities were rewarded by media coverage that virtually ignored the two other major party candidates in this race, the public was ill served.
In summary, I renew my call for Vice President Mondale to agree to a series of debates and that the media cover this race and all of its candidates. The Independence Party has earned and retained major party status and I have run a clean, issue based campaign worthy of coverage. Minnesotans deserve better.