LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF CALIFORNIA ISSUES STATEMENT ON GUBERNATORIAL DEBATES
FOR THE OCTOBER 7 RECALL ELECTION

SACRAMENTO - The League of Women Voters of California (LWVC) is surprised and concerned regarding recent statements made by gubernatorial candidate Peter Camejo on national television and on his campaign Web site regarding our organization.

We believe that Mr. Camejo is confused regarding the League's role in the debate process. We hope the following statement from League of Women Voters of California President Jacqueline Jacobberger will help set the record straight.

STATEMENT ON GUBERNATORIAL DEBATES FOR THE
OCTOBER 7 RECALL ELECTION

Recently, California gubernatorial candidate Peter Camejo has made a number of public statements that the League of Women Voters is excluding him from participating in upcoming gubernatorial debates.

We believe the public deserves to hear our answer to these repeated accusations.

Whenever there are multiple candidates for an elected office, it is necessary to set some quantifiable and impartial criteria for deciding who will be included in a forum. For statewide contests, the League of Women Voters usually uses a percentage of support indicated in one or more respected polls with a cutoff date as close to the event as is technically possible. For regular elections the percentage has been set as high as 15 percent. This usually allows participation by most candidates, which is the League's goal.

There are two gubernatorial forums scheduled in which Leagues are cosponsoring - one on October 2 in Los Angeles and one on October 4 in San Diego.

Faced with the unique situation of having 135 certified candidates on one ballot, the criteria for participating in these forums were set significantly lower to take into account the more widely divided support among this large list. The criteria obviously needed to ensure that televised forums didn't include 135 candidates. And in order to be fair to all the candidates, the criteria had be objective.

The rules for each forum were set up in collaboration with the other partners in the events and, in both cases, the candidates received letters in advance advising them of the criteria for inclusion.

The League of Women Voters of California Education Fund, the nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that conducts our voters service and citizen education activities, cooperated in establishing the rules of the forum in Los Angeles on October 2. Other cosponsors are KNBC, Channel 4, Los Angeles; Telemundo; Los Angeles Cable Station, LA 36; and the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.

This forum set three percent in the Los Angeles Times poll closest to the election as the threshold; this seemed at the time to be low enough to include all the principal candidates. Given the constraints of providing voters with a diversity of candidates and the logistics of administering a debate for a election with 135 listed candidates for office, the League believes that three percent support among likely voters is a reasonable benchmark for participation and there are no plans to change it.

Mr. Camejo polled two percent in the most recent Los Angeles Times poll. The Los Angeles Times is conducting a poll this week and if Mr. Camejo reaches the three percent threshold, he will be included.

The League of Women Voters of San Diego County is a cosponsor of a debate on October 4. Other cosponsors are the San Diego Union-Tribune; KPBS-TV, San Diego and San Diego State University.

The threshold of 10 percent support in a Field Poll or Public Policy Institute of California poll closest to September 29 was established for that forum. This threshold was determined by the Union-Tribune and agreed to by the cosponsors.

During the planning for the event, which started well in advance, League members expressed a preference for a policy offering a greater opportunity for the inclusion of additional candidates. The Union-Tribune undoubtedly felt that support would be more evenly divided and that 10 percent would allow participation of more candidates than are now indicated.

According to the latest Field Poll, candidates currently eligible for participation in the San Diego debate are supported by 84% of those likely voters who expressed a candidate preference.

This first gubernatorial recall election features candidates from all seven political parties recognized by the Secretary of State, and dozens of candidates with no party affiliation. League members take pride in our long and respected history as a nonpartisan voter education organization and do not arbitrarily include or exclude any candidate based on party affiliation or lack thereof.

The League of Women Voters is committed to educating voters as fully as possible about candidates. Every candidate was invited to post information on our Smart Voter Web site, www.SmartVoter.org, and the short list of candidates listed in the supplementary material for the Easy Voter Guide, in which the League is a partner, includes Mr. Camejo.

During this historic special election, League of Women Voters will continue a mission we started more than 80 years ago - strengthening democracy by acting as an unbiased resource that both candidates and voters can rely on.

Jacqueline Jacobberger
President, League of Women Voters of California