Adrian Wyllie, the Libertarian Party candidate for governor, failed to persuade a federal judge that he had a right to appear in Wednesday night's debate between governor candidates Charlie Crist and Rick Scott. <\/p>\n
U.S. District Judge James I. Cohn, who is based in Fort Lauderdale, said in a ruling late Tuesday afternoon that Wyllie did not have a right to appear in the debate, which originates from the Broward College campus in Davie. <\/p>\n
A central tenet of Libertarian Party philosophy is keeping government involvement in private decisions to a minimum. Cohn found that the two debate sponsors, the business group Leadership Florida, and the Florida Press Association, are private organizations. <\/p>\n
Though the judge said Broward College, \"a public community college,\" is a host of the debate, he rejected Wyllie's contention that excluding him from the debate there warranted denial of equal protection or prior restraint on protected speech that would violate his constitutional rights. <\/p>\n
The college, Cohn wrote, \"exercised no control over which candidates may appear in the debate\" and the event is a \"nonpublic forum.\" <\/p>\n
He wrote that Wyllie didn't have a reason to expect that he could appear in the debate because he didn't meet the threshold of getting at least 15 percent support in a public opinion poll before the debate. The judge said the criteria were clear when Leadership Florida and the Press Association announced the debate in August 2013. <\/p>\n
The latest poll, released Tuesday by CNN found the race tied with 44 percent for Democrat Crist and incumbent Republican Scott, with Wyllie at 9 percent. <\/p>\n
Cohn based his ruling on written arguments filed by both sides. He wrote that a hearing was unnecessary because the essential facts were not in dispute and there was a \"need to rule promptly on this time-sensitive\" matter. <\/p>\n
The debate is set for 7 p.m. Wednesday. <\/p>\n
It can be seen online at SunSentinel.com\/governor debate and on television on WFOR-Ch. 4, in the Miami-Fort-Lauderdale Market, WFTV-Ch. 9 in the Orlando market, WPBF-Ch. 25 in the West Palm Beach market. <\/p>\n
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Libertarian party candidate can't force his way into governor debate<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Adrian Wyllie, the Libertarian Party candidate for governor, failed to persuade a federal judge that he had a right to appear in Wednesday night's debate between governor candidates Charlie Crist and Rick Scott. U.S. District Judge James I. Continue reading