Third Party Candidates Debate

Third Party Candidates to Debate 'Real Priorities' at Vanderbilt University


9.30.08 Nashville, TN: The Coalition for October Debate Alternatives (CODA) announced today the Presidential Candidate's Alternative Debate to take place October 6th, in Nashville, Tennessee. The debate is open to all third party candidates for President in the United States as well as the major party nominees. The debate, which is scheduled to take place on the campus of Vanderbilt University on Monday, October 6th will feature several Presidential Candidates who have confirmed attendance including Brad Lyttle of the US Pacifist Party, Charles Jay of the Boston Tea Party, Frank McEnulty of the New American Independence Party and Brian Moore of the Socialist Party. The Constitution Party has also confirmed that Presidential Candidate Chuck Baldwin or Vice Presidential Candidate Darrell Castle will attend the event.




The debate, which is being organized by CODA has been in the making for several months and is scheduled to take place on Monday, October 6th at 7:00pm, one day prior to the Presidential Debates which are happening at Belmont University in Nashville on October 7th. CODA says that many of the Presidential candidates have been excluded from attending the Belmont debate.



In a recent release to the press CODA indicated that is was organizing the alternative debate because it believed that voters deserve to hear from all the candidates if they are going to make an informed choice at the ballot box, " While we want to hear what the major party candidates have to say on issues related to the war, health care, the economy, gas prices, the future direction of the military, civil liberties and the environment, we do not believe that most issues of concern to American voters will be touched by the Democrat-Republican debate. That is why we are organizing an alternative debate so that voters in Nashville, Tennessee and beyond may be informed of all their choices as they participate in America's electoral process."



The general public and the media is invited to attend this event, which will begin at 7pm on the campus of Vanderbilt University in Nashville. The moderator for the event will be Bruce Barry, a professor at the Owen School of Management at Vanderbilt.



Chris Lugo, of the Coalition for October Debate Alternatives, said that the Democratic and Republican candidates have also been invited to the event, but have not indicated an interest in attending, "We believe that voters should make a fully informed choice about who they vote for and we do not believe this is possible if they are only hearing from two candidates. We have invited the Barack Obama and John McCain in the interest of fairness, but we are intending to highlight this alternative debate as the most egalitarian possible event by including all the candidates and promoting this as an event to which everyone is invited."