WHITNEY TO PARTICIPATE IN SECOND NON-PARTISAN DEBATE

Gubernatorial debate, sponsored by the Illinois Free and Equal Elections Coalition (FREE) and the University of Illinois Student Government on Wednesday, November 1st, 2006.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – November 1, 2006

WHITNEY TO PARTICIPATE IN SECOND NON-PARTISAN DEBATE

CONTACT:
Dave Sacks, Office Manager
Whitney for Governor, 773-557-9411
office@...

Rich Whitney, the Green Party's candidate for Illinois Governor, will
participate in a non-partisan gubernatorial debate, sponsored by the
Illinois Free and Equal Elections Coalition (FREE) and the University of
Illinois Student Government on Wednesday, November 1st, 2006.

Mark McCoy, the Libertarian Party write-in candidate, Randy Stufflebeam, the
Constitution Party write-in candidate, and Independent write-in candidate
Marvin Koch, have also confirmed participation in the debate. The debate
will be held at the UIC Cardinal Room, Student Center East, in Chicago,
Illinois. The debate will begin at 6:30 pm with doors opening at 6:00.
Venue address and contact information are as follows:

University of Illinois Chicago (UIC)
Cardinal Room, Student Center East
750 S, Halstead
Chicago, IL
(312)-996-3456

An independent poll of 600 likely voters, conducted by the Glengariff Group
on October 13-15 showed that "an overwhelming 77% of the state’s voters
believe the gubernatorial candidates should hold televised debates before
election day" and "70% of the state’s voters believe these debates should
include Green Party candidate Rich Whitney." 80% of Independents, 70% of
Republicans, and 65% of Democrats believe Whitney should be involved. The
results also showed Rich Whitney polling at 16% amongst central Illinois
voters, and 15% amongst Independents, while drawing equal support from
Democrats and Republicans statewide.

"It's very unfortunate that Governor Blagojevich has chosen to run away from
his civic responsibility to put his ideas to the test of a thorough debate
with all ballot-qualified candidates. All candidates were invited to the
debate that is to take place this evening at the UIC student center in
Chicago. This may be considered an extension of the open challenge that I
issued on October 10th; but whether they appear or not, the voters will at
least have an opportunity to hear my point of view, as well as a couple of
candidates that would have probably been on the ballot with me, if not for
Illinois' extremely repressive ballot access laws," said Rich Whitney.

Whitney is not a write-in candidate and will appear on the General Election
ballot in November, as the Green Party's candidate for Governor.

MORE INFORMATION:
www.whitneyforgov.org
www.freeandequal.org

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