Irvine : A Belated Campaign Victory for Agran

Former Mayor Larry Agran declared a victory this week after a New York judge dismissed charges that he disrupted a nationally televised presidential debate.

Agran, who ran in the Democratic presidential primary, was arrested last March after, as the debate began, he stood up and shouted a request to be seated on the dais with then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. He was charged with trespassing and disturbing the peace.

Judge Joseph Cohen agreed Monday to throw out the misdemeanor criminal charges, Agran said Friday.

“This judge’s opinion is pretty sweet vindication, not only of the legitimacy of what I was doing but . . . the failure of the Democratic Party in New York to abide by standards of fairness and inclusion,” Agran said. “It’s a victory for me and the First Amendment and to other dissident voices.”

Agran said he protested his exclusion from the Lehman College debate, held just before the New York primary, because party officials kept him from participating even though he was one of four Democratic candidates campaigning in New York who qualified to be on the state’s ballot.

The experience hasn’t soured him on the Democratic Party, Agran said. His goal in protesting his exclusion was to broaden the party’s view on who should be allowed to participate in national political discussions.

“They just don’t understand that their obligation was to accommodate and foster the widest possible debate on the fullest range of issues affecting urban America,” Agran said. “Unless the Democratic Party conducts itself in a way that is consistent with democratic principles, it will push millions of people away to independent candidates.”