Everson to file complaint over first GOP debate
WASHINGTON — Former IRS commissioner Mark Everson, a candidate for the GOP presidential nomination, will file a complaint with the Federal Election Commission on Monday alleging that he is being unfairly excluded from the first debate, he told USA TODAY.
Everson is arguing that election law requires debate organizers to set "pre-established and objective standards" for inclusion, and that Fox News has not met that requirement for Thursday's debate in Cleveland.
"Media coverage is the oxygen of politics," Everson said, "and I am being denied that by Fox and its intervention in the political process." Everson launched his campaign in March and has been making regular appearances in Iowa and other states with early contests.
Fox announced earlier this year that it would limit the debate to the top 10 candidates in "an average of the five most recent national polls" as of Aug. 4 at 5 p.m. ET. The network later announced that it would hold a separate on-air forum earlier Thursday for candidates who did not crack the top 10 but "score 1% or higher in an average of the five most recent national polls." That was the same standard Fox set for inclusion in its GOP debates in the 2012 campaign cycle.
Last week the network scrapped the 1% requirement for the early event, with Executive Vice President for News Michael Clemente saying it will instead include "all declared candidates whose names are consistently being offered to respondents in major national polls, as recognized by Fox News." Clemente reiterated that standard again this weekend in response to a query from USA TODAY.
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Everson wrote to Fox on Thursday arguing that "By discarding the 1% threshold for participation in the Fox debate you have recognized that polls are not reliable indicators of future electoral success at this early stage of the Republican race. It is inconsistent and arbitrary to then insist that to be included a candidate must be 'consistently being offered to respondents in major national polls, as recognized by Fox News.' I urge you to reconsider this standard." He said he has had no reply, and Fox said Clemente did not receive the letter.
Everson notes that he is included in an online straw poll that the Republican National Committee has on its website.
It is unlikely that the FEC would rule on Everson's complaint in time for Thursday's debate, but he said, "Our intent is to get Fox to take a second look at this and realize that they have nothing to lose by honoring their stated objective to be inclusive."
Everson is not the only candidate still trying to qualify for the Fox forum. Former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore announced last week he is running for the GOP presidential nomination. "We have been in contact with both Fox News and the Federal Election Commission," Gilmore spokesman Dan Kreske told USA TODAY Sunday. "We just got into the race and are beginning our campaign, but we are hopeful that Gov. Gilmore will at least be included in the early FOX debate."
The trouble for Fox is that there are actually more than 100 people who have filed paperwork declaring themselves candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, nearly all of whom are unknowns without the money, name recognition or organization to mount a serious campaign.
Kerry Bowers, a 30-year Air Force veteran from Nevada, is one of these candidates, and he says the system is rigged only to present to the American people the candidates preferred by the news media and political elites. "The polls are a consequence of the American people being exposed to certain individuals, some of whom were not even candidates at the time they were being included in the polls," he said. "Everything you see in terms of who is going to get into the polls or be in the debate is the result of the work done by the RNC and the media to promote only certain candidates."
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