San Diego

A judge refused Thursday to halt two TV debates between mayoral candidates Bill Cleator and Maureen O’Connor because a write-in candidate was excluded from the programs.

Write-in candidate Robert McCullough, acting as his own attorney, argued that upcoming debates on KCST-TV (Channel 39) and KFMB-TV (Channel 8) should not be aired unless he is allowed to appear.

McCullough asked U.S. District Judge J. Lawrence Irving to issue a temporary restraining order, but the stations’ attorney, William Allcock, maintained that McCullough was asking for censorship.

“There’s no way I can issue such an order . . . to tell the TV stations who should appear on their programs,” the judge ruled.

Irving said the Fairness Doctrine allows for administrative remedies for complaints and told McCullough “you have taken no steps to exhaust those remedies.”

Allcock argued that an order censoring a live televised debate “would constitute a prior restraint and is barred by the First Amendment.”

McCullough, a designer who received 845 votes (0.48%) in the mayoral primary, said he will appeal the ruling.

“I feel my First Amendment rights are severely altered in this case,” McCullough said. “I feel so disappointed in this ruling that I myself might not go to the polls to vote.”