Arizona Clean Elections Refuses to Let Green Party Candidate Participate in U.S. Senate Debate

Rachel Alexander
Eduardo Heredia Quintana Fernandez

The Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission (ACCEC) is refusing to allow Arizona Green Party (AZGP) candidate Eduardo Quintana to participate in the U.S. Senate debate scheduled for October 9 with Republican Kari Lake and Democrat Ruben Gallego, even though Libertarian Party candidate Marc Victor was allowed to participate in the 2022 U.S. Senate debate with Republican Blake Masters and Democrat Mark Kelly. Since Libertarians tend to take away more support from Republicans than Democrats, and Green Party candidates take away support mainly from Democrats, the ACCEC is coming under fire for skewing the debate to favor Gallego.

Turning Point USA CEO Charlie Kirk pointed out the discrepancy in a thread on X. He cited a statement from Arizona Media Association, the broadcast partner for Arizona Clean Elections debates, which said that “candidates must receive at least 1% of the total ballots cast in all the primaries for their race to be included.”

However, Victor only received .02 percent, and Quintana (pictured above) also received .02 percent — not enough for the threshold. “Historically, Libertarians pull votes away from Republican candidates, and the Green Party pulls votes away from Democrat candidates…” Kirk said. “Did taxpayer-funded Arizona Clean Elections (@AZCCEC) exclude the Green Party Nominee to tip the scale to favor Democrat Ruben Gallego?”

The AZGP posted on X that the rules were changed after 2022 to require the 1 percent minimum. “These new qualification rules, which were not in place in 2022, were designed precisely to keep Greens out of the debates,” the account said. “How is a candidate from a party of < 5K registered voters supposed to get 12,400 votes in the primary? The system is rigged against us from the top down.”

Lake contacted the ACCEC to request Quintana’s inclusion. In a statement, she said the ACCEC told her that it was up to Gallego to agree. Lake called on Gallego to agree: “I urge Ruben to accept the proposal for Eduardo to be included in our debate. You cannot claim to be a ‘defender of democracy’ when you refuse access to third-party candidates.”

Quintana vocally protested his exclusion on X. “IMHO, the AMA, the newly formed combination of the Arizona Broadcasters Association and Arizona Newspapers Association which includes more than 350 radio stations, TV stations and newspapers is censoring the information that the public can access to protect the D and R Duopoly,” he said.

He cited Lake’s support. “So, the Arizona Media Association and @AZCCEC created new rules to set a mathematically impossible goal for us to be able to debate, and even though @KariLake has joined our call to allow us to participate, the commission and AZMA are denying voters the right to hear from us,” he posted. He also thanked Lake for asking that all candidates be represented.

Quintana said he wasn’t given the courtesy of being told he wasn’t allowed. “Neither @AZCCEC or the AMA have said a word to our campaign,” he posted. “We’ve been finding all this information out secondhand, as though my candidacy is unworthy of their time or respect.”

The Kari Lake War Room account criticized the AZCCEC for leaving the decision up to Gallego. “.⁦@Quintana4Senate⁩ is right,” the account posted. “Why is it up to Ruben Gallego whether he gets to debate or not? Eduardo is on the ballot.”

Quintana told Gallego on social media that “the ball is in your court.”

“@KariLake has agreed to my inclusion in the debate, and I’m ready to take on the both of you,” he said on X. “Will you stand up for voters’ right to hear from all candidates on the ballot? Or will you cower and hide from a truly leftist opposition?”

In 2022, there was such concern that Victor was eroding Masters’ support that Victor dropped out of the race a week before Election Day and endorsed Masters.

This isn’t the first time this year that the AZGP has complained about Democrats meddling with their races. In April, they accused Democrats of running a sham candidate in their primary, Mike Norton. The AZGP noted that a candidate did that in the 2018 U.S. Senate race to allegedly benefit then-Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who later switched to an independent and is not running for reelection.

Norton only received 180 votes in the primary election, less than Quintana’s 282 votes as a write-in candidate. However, Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes caused confusion when he incorrectly declared Norton the primary winner.

The pair discussed the debate restriction on X. Norton posted, “Eduardo, the ball was in your court through March. You should have used E-Qual to be nominated. I got 640 E-Qual signatures in 72 hours. If the Green Party took its role seriously, I would not have run. You have no right to criticize Gallego. Be professional. Or be quiet.”

Quintana retorted, “And you lost a primary to a write in candidate when you were funded to the tune of $80K by Dem mega donors and super-PACs. Take several seats, Mike.”

Athena Eastwood, the AZGP’s candidate for House in Congressional District 6, was also excluded from that race’s ACCEC debate. The race is considered close between incumbent Republican Juan Ciscomani and Democratic challenger Kirsten Engel.

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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter / X. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Eduardo Heredia Quintana Fernandez” by Eduardo Heredia Quintana Fernandez. 

 

 

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