Lawrence Lessig, a little-known candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, is complaining that he is being unfairly excluded from the party’s first national debate, which CNN will host next week.
“It’s unclear how if you’re not a politician or a billionaire you get to a place where you are able to participate,” Lessig is quoted as saying in a New York Times article on Thursday.
Lessig, a Harvard law professor who is running on a platform to reform campaign finance laws, then complained that “his lack of an invitation to the debate was a ‘Catch-22’ because the criteria [to be invited to the debate] were based on polls that did not include him.”
Exclusion from the first nationally televised debate is likely to cause even more damage to Lessig’s already longshot bid for the Democratic nomination. Presidential candidates with low name recognition depend in large part on the debates for free national exposure.
In a statement on Wednesday, Steve Jarding, senior adviser to Lessig, accused CNN of ignoring the candidate. “CNN is hosting the first debate, they could demand that Lessig be allowed to compete, but they seem strangely quiet on the matter,” Jarding said.
A CNN spokesperson rebutted Lessig’s complaint in an email to the Washington Examiner media desk.
“The debate criteria polling deadline closes Saturday, Oct. 10,” the spokesperson said. “Any candidates who meet the criteria by that date will receive an invitation.”
The criteria CNN released in September for inclusion in the debate said candidates must “achieve an average of at least one percent in a combination of three national polls” conducted from Aug. 1 to Oct. 10.
The spokesperson also pointed to three national polls from September in which Lessig was included.
A Suffolk University/USA Today poll showed Lessig registering less than half a percent. Separate polls by Fox News and Quinnipiac University also showed Lessig getting less than one percent.
A representative for the Lessig campaign did not return a request for comment.
