Open The Debates!

Free and fair elections, require open and honest reporting

Debate is fundamental to the political process in this country and crucial to any race for public office. Without an honest debate between the candidates seeking election, voters are deprived of the necessary and objective presentation of the competing views, values, ideals, and politics of those seeking to represent them.

The voters of New Hampshire deserve to be presented with debates that include all candidates qualified to appear on the general election ballot, regardless of their party affiliation, fundraising totals, or poll numbers. It is not the job of the media to determine what candidates are viable and qualified, as the Secretary of State has already certified those candidates to appear on the November Ballot in accordance with the laws of the State of New Hampshire.

The ultimate decision of who should represent New Hampshire belongs to the voters, not to the media conglomerates who have the privilege of hosting these debates.

I call for WMUR, NHPR, and any other organizations intent on hosting these debates to adopt the only objective criteria for inclusion possible, including every candidate for an office that has been certified by The Secretary of State to appear on the November 8th General Election Ballot.

The Voters of New Hampshire have a right to be informed.
The Media has an obligation to inform them.

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For all debate criteria questions please contact The WMUR News Director, Alisha McDevitt. Her e-mail is amcdevitt@hearst.com and you can reach her in the newsroom by calling 1-603-641-9000.

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The Criteria

Public Debates being such a crucial and critical part of free, fair, and open elections, the rules for determining candidate inclusion are straightforward and specific.

According to the Federal Elections Commission, any tax-exempt nonprofit organization (a 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) organization) that does not endorse, support, or oppose candidates or parties may stage candidate debates. Candidate debates may also be staged by a broadcaster, a bona fide newspaper, a magazine, or other periodical publication as long as they are not owned or controlled by a political party, committee, or candidate. ¹²

WMUR and Hearst Media certainly fit the definition of a broadcaster, so how can they determine which candidates to include in their debates? Well, the FEC’s rules are actually pretty clear on that issue as well.

The organization staging the debate must select the candidates based on pre-established objective criteria. For primary elections, the organization may restrict candidates to those seeking the nomination of one party. For general elections, the staging organization may not use nomination by a particular party as the sole objective criterion. ³

WMUR has at least gone forward and published some pre-established criteria, and it only took weeks, actually months, of bothering them and prodding them to get them to do that.⁴ But are those pre-established criteria also objective? Let's take a look at them one by one.⁵

GENERAL ELECTION – U.S. SENATE

Candidates for U.S. SENATE seeking inclusion in the 2022 Granite State Debates must meet all of these predetermined objective criteria by October 17, 2022. Granite State Debates will only occur if there are at least two candidates.

1. Qualified Candidate. The candidate be qualified by the New Hampshire Secretary of State to appear on the ballot in the general election.

• This criterion is straightforward, objective, simple, and easy to understand, as well as being something exactly 3 candidates, including Jeremy Kauffman, have qualified for.

2. Voter Support. We will consider support achieved in past elections. We will evaluate polling data when available and relevant.

• Having run in previous elections is not a qualifier for public office, nor is it a prerequisite. Polling data is often skewed by partisan influence or outright exclusion from the poll. Furthermore, a broad claim to consider and evaluate, without listing the objective measures by which they will be evaluated fails the test for objectivity.

3. Campaign Organization. The candidate must have a campaign staff beyond the candidate, active and frequent interactions with the public and the media through traditional and digital platforms. The candidate must have an active and regularly updated website and social media platforms.

• We have a great campaign team organized behind Jeremy Kauffman here in New Hampshire! Our campaign has been active, and held plenty of public meet-and-greet and events. Yet, regardless of the many invitations and notices that were given to the Mainstream Media outlets (including WMUR, NHPR, and the Major papers) only The Patch deemed it worth their time to acknowledge our campaign and interact with us to cover events. Yet, Jeremy has been more active than any other candidate on digital platforms and social media, and his viral video ads have been covered both nationally and internationally, while WMUR chooses to ignore them. Don’t Believe me? Check out Jeremy’s YouTube Page or Twitter Account, and of course, this Substack publication, and Jeremy’s Website.

4. Previous Public Office Held/Percentage of Last Vote. We will consider whether the candidate has held public office in the past. If the candidate has run in a previous election, we will evaluate the number of votes and/or percentage of votes achieved.

• To reiterate, having held public office previously is not a qualifier for a candidate for the United States Senate. If a candidate has never run for office before and has never held office before, what exactly is supposed to be evaluated by these subjective criteria? Is this metric designed specifically to exclude candidates outside the political establishment?

5. Fundraising. We will evaluate candidate fundraising based on public reports.

• The Kauffman campaign has indeed fundraised and continues to do so. You can check out the fundraising quarterly reports for ALL candidates in the race right on the FEC Website. You can even pitch in right now too at Jeremy4nh.com/donate. But did you have a specific number in mind that we needed to fundraise to qualify for your debate? Or was it just as long as it was enough to buy advertising from you? If there is an objective number, were you considering sharing it before the 9/30 cutoff for the reporting quarter, or were you waiting to see how much we raised before publishing the amount so you could exclude Jeremy from the debate?

Let’s Be Honest

There is nothing “objective” about the Criteria WMUR has chosen to publish. And there’s nothing honest about their methodology and history of deliberately excluding candidates from the debate stage to the disservice of Granite State voters.

We need to get these messages in front of as many granite state voters as possible. And legacy media isn’t gonna treat us fairly. But we can strive to have an impact with your help.

Every donation helps get us closer to our goals and gets the message of liberty in front of more Granite State voters. With your help, we can make a difference and make liberty win today.

Yours in Liberty,
Justin O’Donnell
Campaign Manager, Jeremy Kauffman for US Senate
kauffman.campaign@anarchy.email

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This publication is published by Kauffman for Congress, FEC ID: C00803601

1. https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/making-disbursements-ssf-or-connected-organization/public-debates/

2. https://www.fec.gov/regulations/110-13/2022-annual-110#110-13

3. https://www.fec.gov/regulations/114-4/2022-annual-114#114-4-f

4. https://www.wmur.com/article/granite-state-debates-criteria-nov-2022/41503508

5. https://archive.ph/9q61Z