Ex-NM Governor Files FEC, FCC Complaints

Former two-term New Mexico Governor and long-shot GOP presidential candidate Gary Johnson filed complaints to both the Federal Elections Committee and the Federal Communications Commission Tuesday following his exclusion from this weekend’s GOP debate sponsored by CBS. 

Johnson’s campaign argues that CBS was providing monetary assistance to campaigns of candidates it hosted via publicity, saying that due to the recent fluctuations in the polls, it’s clear that national debates have propelled candidates’ poll numbers. According to the complaint, Johnson said that CBS is “directly and significantly supporting those candidates it favors, and advocating the nomination of one of their favorites and opposing the nomination of [Johnson], whom CBS evidently disfavors.”

“In so doing, CBS is making an illegal corporate in-kind contribution to those favored candidates,” the complaint to the FEC reads. “The value of this contribution vastly exceeds the contribution limit that applies to any category of lawful donor.”

Johnson’s complaint to the FCC is based on the notion that the content being broadcast by CBS is regulated by the commission. According to the FCC complaint, CBS “televised on its national network another debate, but instead of including all leading candidates has elected to arbitrarily and capriciously exclude some candidates and include others. In so doing, CBS is, without any other explanation, choosing to favor certain candidates. By excluding viable candidates like Complainant, who has been included by other cable networks in their debates.”

According to the complaint to the FCC, the content broadcast by CBS belongs to the people and Johnson’s camp has argued that “the public deserves to be free from bias- favoring some candidates over others- as well as illegal support of certain presidential candidates on national network television.”