Three third-party gubernatorial candidates sued President J. Charles Lee Tuesday because they have been excluded from the four debates, one of which will be held Oct. 6 in McComas Hall.
The other debates will be held in Biloxi, Jackson and at Delta State University.
Reform Party candidate Shawn O’Hara, Green Party candidate Sherman Lee Dillon and Constitution Party candidate John Thomas Cripps sued Lee, along with Delta State University President John Hilpert, Republican gubernatorial candidate Haley Barbour and the League of Women Voters.
The plaintiffs asked for punitive damages of $3 million. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court, Southern Division, which is based in Jackson.
University spokesman Joe Farris said did not comment because of the legal ramifications of issuing a statement on pending litigation.
Lee and Hilpert were sued as individuals, rather than in their official capacities as university presidents. Barbour was named as defendant twice, both as an individual and as a candidate for governor. Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, who is running for re-election, was not named in the lawsuit.
The governor was excluded so that tax dollars would not have to be spent defending him, said Landon Huey, spokesman for the Dillon campaign.
“Dr. Lee’s the easiest target,” said Student Association President Josh Blades. He noted that the SA is sponsoring the MSU debate. Blades declined to comment on the merits of the lawsuit.
Lee was named as an individual in an effort to get his attention, Dillon said. “If it has his name on it, he’ll pay attention to it.” Blades would have been included had the plaintiffs known his name at the time the lawsuit was filed, he said.
Cripps said including the SA as another defendant would have slowed the legal process too much. “We’ve only got five weeks until the election. We’re looking these debates right in the eye. We decided the best approach would be to list the top dog as the plaintiff,” he said.
Third-party candidates should participate in the debates because Mississippians are curious about them, Dillon said. “Less than 40 percent of the people voted for Haley or Ronnie in the primaries … the other people are being drug along,” he said.
Third party candidates should be included in a debate held at a public university, Cripps said. “If you’ve got an institution that receives tax funds, it should be open to all candidates,” he said
“What (third party candidates) are being told is that we have two classes of candidates: one which is being told we have to ride in the back of the bus and drink from a separate fountain,” Cripps said.
Quinton Dickerson, spokesman for the Barbour campaign, said the terms of the debates had carefully negotiated between the two campaigns. “We think it’s appropriate that the two major-party candidates debate because of time constraints,” he said.
The media has ignored the third-party candidates, Dillon said, so they’ve had to seek alternate ways of getting their message to the voters. “If the newspapers and the TV stations had done their job, we wouldn’t have had to do this,” Dillon said.
Blades said the lawsuit had not affected plans for the debate. “As of right now, we’re full speed ahead,” he said.