A candidate for D.C. mayor wants a court to order that he be allowed to participate in Wednesday night’s debate that will be broadcast on WTTG-TV (Channel 5).
“This is not a personal fight. This is a fight for free information for the people and voters of the District of Columbia,” James Q. Butler said Tuesday. “They have a right to know who’s on the ballot. And [host Georgetown University] is attempting to quell that information.”
“This is, folks, a threat to our democracy,” he said.
Butler — a former lawyer and 5D03 Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner — is on the ballot for the June 21 Democratic primary. The other candidates are incumbent Muriel Bowser and D.C. Council members Robert White and Trayon White.
Butler filed a request for a temporary restraining order in D.C. Superior Court last Friday to prevent the debate from happening without him. A portion of the petition states: “An order allowing Butler to participate in the debate serves the public interest because it allows certain marginalized populations in D.C. to know and understand that there is a candidate that represents their interests.”
On Monday, the case was moved to U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and on Tuesday, a motion to dismiss and opposition to Butler’s motion for a preliminary injunction was filed there on behalf of Georgetown University.
“Three candidates met our qualification requirements, and as of today, all three have confirmed. Out of fairness to all candidates, we are unable to accommodate requests by any individual candidate to change the impartial eligibility criteria that were established over three months ago,” a university spokesperson told WTOP in an email Tuesday.
To participate in the debate, candidates on the ballot have to meet at least one of the following three criteria.
- Have been certified as a “participating candidate” in the District’s Fair Elections Program not later than via the May 10, 2022 Office of Campaign Finance Filing for Fair Elections Program participants, OR
- Have secured 1,000 campaign donations as demonstrated in the campaign’s May 10, 2022 Office of Campaign Finance Filing for Traditional Campaign Committees, OR
- Are polling at 3% or greater in an independent public poll sponsored by a media organization released between February 1 and May 18, 2022.
Detailing how he believes he met the third criteria listed above, Butler referenced a poll conducted last month on Twitter by the Washington Informer in which 41% of respondents favored him. Butler also referenced a poll conducted in February in which the candidate option specified as “other” garnered 4% of the responses.
“We will make this argument in the highest trial court in the land, the U.S. District Court, right down the road, that we did Garner 3% or higher in this poll, because three of the other candidates got in the teens or whatever. But there was a category that said other — and that was 4%,” Butler said. “Well, I clearly am the other. Why, because I wasn’t even included (named) in the poll. So, I’m clearly part of the other.”
If he’s excluded from the debate, Butler said Channel 5 could mitigate the harm done by giving him equal televised time before the election to respond to issues raised during the debate.
“We know that the FCC requires equal time, unless there’s an exception in a 1984 ruling, that if they partner with an academic institution, they can carve out some exceptions,” he said.
“However, those exceptions are not created to circumvent the nature of the law. We don’t create exceptions so that we can circumvent federal laws. The exceptions are carve-outs so that it can be done appropriately and fairly. This court of equity, we believe, will grant us a remedy.”
