----------------------LWV's Xandra Kayden---------------Libertarian U.S. Senate candidate Judge Jim Gray

In California Politics Today #60, CPT showcased the differing views held by the League of Women Voters of California and U.S. Senate candidate Judge Jim Gray regarding his inclusion or exclusion from the LWV-sponsored debate scheduled for August 10th at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.

The League's position, expressed on that program by their lead debate consultant (and past president) Xandra Kayden, was that only candidates receiving ten percent or more in an independent poll of likely voters were entitled to participate in the debate.

This criterion means that Democratic incumbent U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer and the Republican candidate, former California Secretary of State Bill Jones, have been invited to participate in the televised debate but that Judge Jim Gray, the nominee for U.S. Senate of the Libertarian Party of California, has not.

Frustrated by the failure of any "independent" poll to include his name along with those of Boxer and Jones as a candidate on the list from which a poll respondent was allowed to choose, Judge Gray took $2,000 of his campaign money and hired the Rasmussen Reports polling company to conduct a poll of 500 likely California voters in which they would be given his name, along with those of Boxer and Jones, as one they could select as their choice for U.S. Senator.

This poll was conducted on July 22, 2004. The results were published on the Rasmussen Reports web site on July 26th. They were sent that day by the Gray campaign to the League of Women Voters offices in Sacramento and to LWV consultant Xandra Kayden.

On Tuesday, July 27th, Judge Gray talked to California Politics Today about the poll results and his belief that he should be allowed to participate in the debate on the basis of the poll findings. You can hear Judge Gray's comments by clicking here.

California Politics Today then contacted Xandra Kayden and asked her if she'd received the materials sent to her by Judge Gray. She had. CPT then asked her if they were sufficient to reverse the League's position and allow Judge Gray into the August 10th debate. They weren't, she said. "It's not independent. It's a push poll. He didn't get ten percent," she said.

You can hear what LWV consultant Xandra Kayden had to say about the poll commissioned by Judge Gray and his debate status by clicking here.

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