Candidates Control the Debates

When they sponsored the presidential debates, the League of Women Voters assembled a team of experts to negotiate with the candidates. In doing so, the League ensured that the presidential debates served the interests of the American people, rather than the political parties.

The CPD, by contrast, allows the major party candidates to unilaterally dictate the details of the presidential debates, at the expense of voter education. Every four years, negotiators for the Republican and Democratic campaigns meet behind closed-doors to draft secret debate contracts. The CPD implements the contracts and shields the major party candidates from the ensuing public criticism. Frank Donatelli, senior advisor to the Bob Dole presidential campaign, said, "The commission throws the party, the commission gets the food, hires the band, but as to who shows up, what the time is and what the dress is, those are the candidates' decisions."

The Republican and Democratic debate negotiators have significant ties to the CPD. For example, Vernon Jordan was a CPD director before becoming Bill Clinton's debate negotiator in 1996 and Kerry's debate negotiator in 2004. David Norcross was the vice-chairman of the CPD before becoming Bob Dole's debate negotiator in 1996.

Under CPD sponsorship, the secretly negotiated debate contracts have dramatically increased in size and depth. There were no debate contract in 1976 and 1980. In 1984, the League of Women Voters and the major party campaigns collectively negotiated a three-page Memorandum of Understanding. In 1988, the Bush and Dukakis campaigns drafted a 16-page Memorandum of Understanding - the first time a debate sponsor had been excluded from the negotiations. In 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008, the debate contracts ran at least 20 pages long.

Since 1992, the debate contracts have been remarkably similar, all addressing in like fashion: candidate participation, debate formats, staging details, podium heights, audience placement, selection of moderators and panelists, dressing rooms, press seating, restrictions on camera shots, division of tickets, time limits on responses, opening and closing statements, role of the moderator, press passes, and even coin tosses. In fact, entire paragraphs, word for word, are included in the agreements year after year, which is why the debates seem so sanitized year after year.

The 7 Major Problems with the CPD
The CPD was created by the major parties to strengthen the major parties.
The CPD is primarily financed by multinational corporations.
The CPD awards the candidates absolute control over the debate process.
The CPD excludes popular candidates
The CPD employs uninspiring formats.
The CPD shields the major party candidates from public accountability.
The CPD violates FEC and IRS regulations.