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Spring 2004: CUIP activists launch the Let Nader Debate campaign, a grassroots web-based petitioning effort which calls for independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader’s inclusion into the debates. Thousands of signatures are gathered and sent to President Bush in an open letter urging him to use his authority as president to intervene in the matter.
May 2000: A suit is filed by the Committee for a Unified Independent Party in US District Court of the Southern District, which include the Libertarian, Green and Reform parties. The action aims to overturn FEC regulations that allow the Commission on Presidential Debates to effectively shut out third-party candidates in the fall campaign forums by requiring that candidates carry the support of 15 percent of voters in national polls before they may participate.
June 2000: The Committee for a Unified Independent Party and Dr. Fulani file a complaint with the FEC against the Commission on Presidential Debates charging that the CPD debates violated the new FEC regulation about pre-existing nonpartisan criteria. The FEC does not find a violation. CUIP then sues the FEC for its handling of the complaint. This case eventually is dismissed on the grounds that CUIP and Fulani lack standing. (Remember, Fulani was not a presidential candidate in 2000).
June 2000: CUIP holds a conference in lower Manhattan in which over 100 legal professionals and activists gather to launch a citizen-driven legal committee to work on the debates issue.
May 2000: Alan Keyes & Fulani come together at the press club in Washington, DC to announce a legal suit vs. the Federal Election Commission and to speak out against the 15% rule.
February 2000: A signature-gathering campaign to change the question on the Commission on Presidential Debates Poll is launched. Hundreds of signatures on a petition to the FEC are gathered.
January 2000 Dr. Lenora Fulani writes a series of editorials launching a “Campaign to Change the Question on the CPD Poll.” In it she says: “Not only is the poll question it proposes a manipulation, but the fact that the polling partnerships will be asking voters their candidate preference without informing them that the results of the poll they are taking will determine who is admitted to the debates is a fraud on the public. The American people have a right to know the implications of answering questions in a particular way. Informed voting is the essence of democracy."
Fall, 1995: The FEC finally adopts its new rules, and it included the central point of Dr. Fulani’s proposal. The new FEC rule says that debate sponsors must select the participants based upon pre-existing nonpartisan objective criteria. In short, CUIP succeeds in causing a significant change in the FEC regulations.
June 1993: In response to intense lobbying by the independent movement (which is given an enormous impetus by Ross Perot's capture of 20% of the vote in the 1992 presidential election), Rep. Al Swift (D-WA) holds hearings on Presidential Debates on Capitol Hill. Representatives of independent parties and candidates, including Arthur Block (attorney for independent presidential candidate Lenora B. Fulani), Deborah Green (of Ross & Green), Stuart Reges (Libertarian Party) and Rep. Timothy Penney (sponsor of presidential debates reform legislation) testify alongside the Chairmen of the Democratic and Republican National Committees, the Commission on Presidential Debates, and numerous representatives from news organizations and academia.
April 1993: Rep. Timothy Penney introduces H.R. 1753, the "Democracy in Presidential Debates Act of 1993". This bill incorporates the provisions of a previous bill, H.R. 791, and extends them to include participation in the General Election Debates. To be eligible to receive any general election public funds, the candidate for President and Vice President must: 1) agree to participate in at least two Presidential election debates with all candidate meeting objective criteria spelled out in the bill and 2) all debates should be sponsored by a nonpartisan organization.
October 1992: The Federal Election Commission holds hearings on proposed new rules governing presidential debates. Arthur Block, the attorney for Dr. Fulani in Fulani v. Brady and Deborah Green, political director of the Rainbow Lobby, testify on the need for the FEC to close the gap left by the IRS's failure to hold non-profit debate sponsors to their obligation to remain strictly non-partisan. They urge the FEC to establish objective criteria for eligibility for inclusion in the debates.
February 1992: Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN) introduces S. 2213, "Presidential Debates Act of 1986". This bill is a companion bill to Rep. Timothy Penney's "Democracy in Presidential Debates Act."
February 1992: Dr. Lenora B. Fulani sues the IRS for allowing the League of Women Voter's "Voter Education Fund" to exclude her from its New Hampshire Primary Debate (Fulani v. Brady). Dr. Fulani's suit alleges that the League acted in a partisan manner by sponsoring a debate to which it invited only those candidates who the League considered "significant" -- with "significance" defined according to the League's own subjective criteria. In 1993, Judge Robert W. Sweet, sitting in the US District Court for Southern New York, agrees, ruling that the League's use of subjective criteria was partisan. By allowing the candidates' significance to rest exclusively on the judgment of the League, ". . . the government is supporting an unfair and partisan structure in the electoral process."
February 1991: Rep. Timothy Penney (DFL-MN) introduces H.R. 791, the Democracy in Presidential Debates Act. Drafted by the Rainbow Lobby (a lobbying organization founded by CUIP national organizer, Nancy Ross and Deborah Green), the bill contains provisions to reform the Presidential debate process by: 1) making participation in debates mandatory for candidates wishing to be eligible to receive Primary Matching Funds; 2) requiring that the debates be sponsored by a non-partisan, non-profit organization; and 3) setting objective criteria by which qualified independent and minor party candidates can be included in debates.
Fall, 1988: Dr. Lenora B. Fulani, an independent candidate for president listed on the ballot on 50 states plus DC, and qualifying for close to $1 million in Primary Matching Funds, is excluded from the Presidential Debates by the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). Fulani sues the IRS, asking that they withdraw tax-exempt status from the CPD, because, in failing to provide objective criteria through which candidates could qualify for the debates, the CPD acted in a partisan manner. Fulani loses in the US District Court and on appeal to the DC circuit, which denies her standing to sue. However, in a dissenting opinion, Judge Abner Mikva contends that the failure of the courts to grant Fulani standing and allow her case to be heard on its merits, "insulates from review federal complicity in keeping minor political parties off the national stage."
Summer, 1988 During the primary season Fulani sues the IRS and the League of Women Voters for revocation of the League’s tax exemption. She loses the case at the district court level and appeals. On the appeal Dr. Fulani wins a major decision on the question of standing. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals holds that Fulani has standing to sue the IRS to seek revocation of the LWV tax exemption. But it says that it is okay for the LWV to hold debates that are limited to the primary processes of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. In 1988, Dr. Fulani is running as an independent only.
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