League Selects L.A. as Site of One Presidential Debate

The League of Women Voters announced Tuesday that it has selected four cities, including Los Angeles, as sites for presidential debates in 1988, thereby escalating its war with the national political parties over primary sponsorship of such contests.

The Republican and Democratic national committees are jointly sponsoring debates between the nominees and said earlier this month that 15 major candidates had agreed to participate if nominated.

Grant P. Thompson, executive director of the league’s education fund, called the selection of the debate sites “good news for us and . . . good news for the American people.”

Debate at Universal

“They’re the one (set of) nonpartisan, objective, experienced debates that people have come to expect,” he said in a breakfast meeting with reporters. He said the debate in Los Angeles would be held in September or October, 1988, at the Universal Amphitheater.

The other cities selected are Boston, Minneapolis and Birmingham, Ala., with seven prospective dates under consideration in those two months. Three of the debates would be between presidential nominees and the fourth would feature vice presidential nominees.

National party officials shrugged off the league’s announcement and expressed doubt that the league’s events would ever be held.

Richard Moe of Washington, a member of the nonprofit commission established jointly by the two national committees to organize four debates in September and October, said the league was “putting the cart before the horse” with its site selections, remarking: “You can’t have debates without candidates.

” . . . It would be a mistake for any of these cities to assume that they’re going to be hosts for a debate,” he said. “That is far from certain and, perhaps, unlikely, given the way this process is unfolding.”

Party officials said that more than two dozen cities had expressed interest in being host to their events, which are scheduled for Sept. 14 and 25 and Oct. 11 and 27.

Thompson, for his part, questioned how solid the parties’ commitments from candidates really are. “Setting dates (with candidates) more than a year in advance is an exercise in futility,” he said. He said the league has been talking with the candidates but would not seek pledges to debate until it was clearer who might be nominated.

The exchanges were the latest in a dispute that began earlier this year, when the Democratic and Republican national committees announced party sponsorship of televised debates and said that they would improve them by changing the format.

The league, in defending its turf, insisted the political parties could not offer the credibility and reputation for impartiality that the league has won through decades of organizing debates.

The campaign season is already crowded with such forums, as an assortment of organizations, many of them newspapers and television networks, have made plans for sponsoring their own debates in 1988.

Thompson insisted that the league is not holding on to its debates merely for their public relations value.

“It sounds old-fashioned, but we do it because we believe in them,” he said. “In many ways, the League of Women Voters stands for good, old-fashioned values, the power of the informed voter. That looks pretty square in a society which is run by pre-packaged, 30-second commercials, but it’s something in our experience people have valued.”

Lois Saffian, president of the League of Women Voters of Los Angeles, said she believes the event will help her group “reach out to new people.” She said the Los Angeles chapter has $125,000 committed to the event and hopes to raise $300,000 in sponsorship money.