Spurned by CNN, Gravel opts for “alternative”

While the other Democratic presidential candidates debate at UNLV Thursday, former Alaska Sen. and bottom-tier presidential candidate Mike Gravel will be at the Paris Hotel hosting his own “alternative debate.”  Excluded by CNN for worse than lackluster fundraising and armed with a Tivo, a streaming webcast and a healthy dose of scorn for certain other Democratic candidates, Gravel will answer questions for the public as they are asked by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and then will comment on the other candidates’ answers.

This will not be the first time that Gravel is excluded from a debate.  He was also excluded from the Oct. 30th NBC debate held at Drexel University, that time for not meeting unspecified polling requirements.

CNN political director Sam Feist said Monday that Gravel had failed to meet one of the two criteria for an invitation to the debate.  “The criteria that we used included a measure of polling,” said Feist.  “All candidates had to be at least at one percent for national polling and he barely made that.  He’s not at one percent in many polls.”

“The other criteria we had was the requirement that you have raised at least a million dollars in individual contributions,” said Feist.  “Whereas all the other candidates have raised well over a million dollars, Mike Gravel has raised only a couple of hundred thousand dollars in individual contributions.  We determined that was a reasonable amount to have raised by this time in the campaign, if you’re going to have any chance of securing the nomination.”

Gravel’s camp disagreed.

“It’s a lousy way to determine the eligibility of a candidate for a debate,” said Alex Colvin, Sen. Gravel’s campaign press secretary.  “[Gravel’s] point all along is that money is the corrupting influence in politics.  So to have a criteria based on money is basically the network being in collusion with that corrupting factor.”

CNN wasn’t Gravel’s only target in assigning blame for his exclusion.

“It’s no mistake that this came after the Dartmouth debate,” said Colvin.  “He called Hillary out (which no other candidate was willing to do) for supporting the Lieberman-Kyl Amendment.  She’s basically given George Bush the authorization for an invasion of Iran.”

Sen. Clinton’s campaign declined to comment for this article.

So, with statistically insignificant polling numbers, barely enough money to open a Starbuck’s franchise and no opportunity to confront opponents on a debate stage, how does Gravel hope to win the nomination?

“Our netroots program, media, and just plain stumping,” said Colvin.  “There’s no substitute for stumping, going out and meeting voters and having a strong internet presence.”

“We have a good staff in Nevada,” Colvin added.  “Because the other candidates are putting so much money into New Hampshire and Iowa, we feel like we can kind of sneak in the back door in some of these other states.”

Feist finds that unlikely.

“If you’re going to have any chance of securing the nomination you have to have the financial resources to be able to go forward,” he said.  “If by this point in the campaign they’re not meeting a certain threshold in the polls and he’s not in a position to raise the money to fund the campaign, then it’s highly unlikely that he’s going to be a contender for his party’s nomination.”