Voters/Supporters Demand Politico Include Green Party Candidate Butch Ware in California Governor Forum

SACRAMENTO, CA: “This is not the first time that a strong Green performance in a candidate forum has led to that candidate being excluded from future debates” writes Mike Feinstein, former mayor and city council member of Santa Monica CA, in a letter to Politico’s California Playbook editors.

California voters have raised serious concerns about Politico’s handling of its upcoming California Governor Candidate Forum scheduled for August 27. After receiving a flood of emails, social media messages and calls from constituents urging the inclusion of Green Party candidate Butch Ware, Politico removed the title “gubernatorial candidate” from the biographies of every candidate on its promotional materials, instead of addressing voter concerns and including Prof. Ware in the forum.

This change comes after Prof. Ware delivered a rousing performance at the SEIU gubernatorial candidate forum, where he consistently received the loudest and most enthusiastic audience response, and where he polled highest as the member favorite candidate. Despite being presented with the opportunity to recognize this momentum and presenting Californians with a third party candidate, Politico instead has chosen to ignore the question of Ware’s exclusion by erasing the word “candidate” altogether.

Further exacerbating public frustration, Politico will be hosting a post-forum mixer, where the invited candidates will be given exclusive time to mingle with the corporate sponsors underwriting the event. This rightfully raises profound questions about whether the forum is intended to serve California voters or corporate interests.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time California’s political establishment and corporate media have prevented Green Party candidates from sharing the stage. In 1998, after Green Party governor candidate Dan Hamburg drew overwhelming applause at a candidate forum alongside Democrat Gray Davis and Republican Dan Lungren, to the extent that Davis refused to participate in any further debates with Hamburg. Similarly in 2002, Democrat Gray Davis went so far as to bar Green Party candidate governor Peter Camejo from sitting in the audience of a televised debate from which Camejo had been excluded from appearing on stage. This trend continued in 2010 when then Green governor candidate Laura Wells was arrested outside a gubernatorial debate from which she was excluded, but for which she was ticketed to attend. The consistent hostility towards strong third party candidates has carried into 2025 with Prof. Butch Ware.

California voters deserve better. When corporate sponsors and billionaire donors dictate who voters are allowed to hear from, that is not democracy, it’s a corpocracy.

Excluding Prof. Ware denies voters a real, solution-based alternative to the corporate duopoly that has repeatedly failed them on affordable housing, healthcare, climate, and education.

Politico should do the right thing: add Butch Ware to the speaking roster and give California voters the full spectrum of candidates they deserve.

Learn more: www.ButchWare4Gov.com
Follow on Instagram:@bware4gov

Contact
For general media inquiries:
Juwairia Abbas, Press Secretary
Phone: 917-891-0441
Email: press@butchware4gov.org
Jason Call, Campaign Manager
Phone: 425-691-6631
Email: manager@butchware4gov.org