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The Independence Party candidate for governor is criticizing the organizers of  a debate Tuesday in Duluth for excluding her from the event.

Hannah Nicollet said the head of the Duluth Chamber of Commerce told her that they "didn't want to break precedent" by including her in the debate, even though IP candidate Tom Horner was invited to the same event four years ago.

She said she was also told it would be a "violation of trust" between the campaigns for Republican Jeff Johnson and DFL Gov. Mark Dayton if they included her.

Nicollet said she should be allowed to take part in the debate because she's a major party candidate.

“It's a violation of trust with the state of Minnesota considering we have laws in place which designate a major party.  And Minnesotans identify 40 percent as independent, so they should have the third option,” Nicollet said.

David Ross, executive director of the Duluth Chamber of Commerce, says his group  started negotiations in August with Dayton’s and Johnson’s campaigns. He said the agreement they reached was to include just the two candidates.

He couldn’t explain why Horner was invited to the 2010 debate but Nicollet was not asked to participate in this year’s debate.

When asked whether either of the candidates pushed to exclude her, Ross said Johnson’s campaign told organizers they wanted them to honor the initial agreement to “have two candidates and no more.”

He said the chamber is moving forward with the debate as scheduled for fear that either Dayton or Johnson would drop out because the rules had been modified.

“Understand too that if we were to add a third or fourth candidate, then I think the likelihood that they would have an ability or a reason to say ‘I won’t participate. Things have changed,” Ross said. “But because there is no change, we have no reason to believe that they won’t proceed as planned."

A Johnson campaign spokesman did not immediately return calls to clarify their stance on tomorrow’s debate.

Dayton has said he believes Nicollet should be included in all the gubernatorial debates.

A Johnson campaign official said the debate rules were negotiated in good faith and didn't dispute the notion that Johnson would prefer the debates to be between Johnson and Dayton.

"If we want to revisit that and renegotiate these and open those negotiations back up again, we would consider that. But frankly what we have here is a situation where Gov. Dayton is afraid to have one-on-one debates with Jeff Johnson," said Johnson campaign advisor Gregg Peppin. "So it doesn't surprise me that he would be pushing to have multiple candidates in the debates."

Nicollet’s campaign manager said they’re still in negotiations with organizers of the other two scheduled debates.

UPDATE: Johnson now says he isn't doing anything to keep Nicollet out of the debate. When asked about her attendance, he said "I don't care one way or another."

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Tom Scheck

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IP candidate says the precedent is to include the third major party candidate.

Nicollet wants in on Duluth debate

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