Perot Challenges Debate Commission

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Sept. 23) -- As promised, Reform Party candidate Ross Perot filed a federal lawsuit today, challenging the decision to bar him from next month's presidential debates.

The lawsuit, filed in Washington, D.C., alleges that the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates violated its own selection criteria in excluding Perot from the debates, now set for Oct. 6 and Oct. 16. The commission decided Perot, who captured no Electoral College votes four years ago, had no realistic chance of winning the presidency.

In a morning interview on CNN's "Inside Politics," Perot '96 national coordinator Russ Verney said he expects Perot's lawsuit will be merged with other third-party challenges, and there could be a decision as soon as Thursday. Natural Law Party candidate John Hagelin has also filed a lawsuit.

Verney said Perot is at the same standing in the polls now as he was in 1992, when the commission let him participate.

"What we're asking for is to recognize that Ross Perot has met all of the criteria to be included in these debates, all of the objective criteria to be included in these debates," Verney said, "and that in the alternative, if he is not allowed in the debates, if the Democrats and the Republicans can lock him out of the debates, then the fraudulent Commission on Presidential Debates should be barred from sponsoring the debates." (256K AIFF or WAV sound)

Perot says he is in the race to win, but also has told The Associated Press that he wants to get at least 25 percent of the vote. "My goal is to make sure this new party gets at a minimum 25 percent of the vote and I think that is easily obtainable," he said.

Perot said that level of support -- better than the 19 percent he captured in 1992 -- would put the Reform Party on "full parity" with the Republicans and Democrats in regards to public financing of future campaigns.

Perot Challenges Debate Commission

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