A debate lawsuit and contempt for voters

Tim Kaine does have a challenger for the Democratic Senate nomination next year and that candidate, Julien Modica, has sued the AP, the Virginia Capitol Correspondents Association and the AP’s Bob Lewis to be included in the December debate the groups have organized:

“Somebody had to do it,” Modica said of the suit filed Tuesday afternoon. “Essentially, these two organizations have stood up and said, ‘OK, if you’re a Democratic candidate and you’re Tim Kaine, you’re fine. Everybody else, it’s just an exercise in futility.’ And I’m outraged.”

To participate, candidates must average 15 percent or better in published primary polls and have raised at least 20 percent as much money as their party’s front-runner through the end of October.

Modica, president of Reston-based Veteran HealthCare Inc., said he is aware of no published polls that have even included him. And while Kaine and Allen have each raised more than $3.5 million, the Federal Elections Commission shows Modica having raised $346,045. He said he has since amended his report to reflect a total of $540,361, but that’s still shy of the 20 percent mark.

And yes, the candidate in question was convicted of bank fraud, under a different name.

As the debate’s organizers are private entities, it’s unlikely a lawsuit demanding entry (and damages) will succeed.

However, the larger point — that the resident press is staging a general election-style debate months before either party’s primary and setting barriers to entry that are guaranteed to limit the number of participants — remains valid. The only way to short-circuit this overreach would be for Mr. Kaine and Mr. Allen to refuse to participate. Neither man shows any inclination to do so, which speaks poorly of their respect for their opponents and for the political process.

However, there is a way for Mr. Modica to get the valuable face time with Kaine he pines for: convince the DPVA to follow the RPV’s lead on primary debates. The RPV, to its credit, has invited every Republican candidate who gets on the ballot the chance to participate in three debates. That’s not only a fair set of rules, it’s the only set that should apply.

That neither the Democratic Party nor the Virginia press corps is interested in such an exercise shows just how much contempt they have for the voting public.

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About the author

Norman Leahy

Norm Leahy has written about Virginia and national politics online since 2002, beginning with One Man's Trash (OMT), and continuing through Bacon's Rebellion (both the blog and the e-zine), Sic Semper Tyrannis, NBC12's Decision Virginia, Richmond.com and Tertium Quids. He is the chief blogger at "The Score" and a producer of "The Score" radio show as well as being a Washington Examiner contributor.