Four Democrat candidates for Texas governor, including one from the Rio Grande Valley, have sued a North Texas TV station for being excluded from a televised debate.
Candidates Star Locke, Alma Aguando, Felix Alvarado and Clement Glenn filed a lawsuit against North Texas Public Broadcasting, Inc. in Austin’s federal court on Tuesday.
The four are listed among seven candidates vying for the Democrat Party’s nomination in the Texas Govenor’s race.
According to the lawsuit, KERA-TV form Dallas produced a debate between Democrat candidates Bill White and Farouk Shami on February 8th.
Locke told Action 4 News that he, Aguando, Alvarado and Glenn got together to sue the public TV station’s parent entity North Texas Public Broadcasting for being excluded.
“It was shocking,” Locke told Action 4 News. “That’s the reason people who are of modest means don’t run for office.”
According to the Texas Democrat Party’s website, Locke is a builder and rancher from Cameron County.
Aguando lists her profession as a physician while Alvarado is a teacher and Glenn is an associate professor.
The group is suing for $400 million dollars and alleges racial discrimination for being Native American, Hispanic or African-American.
The seventh Democrat candidate for Texas Govenor, an privet investigator named Bill Dear, did not participate in the lawsuit.
KERA released the following statement on Wednesday morning about the lawsuit:
We are disappointed that these candidates have chosen to ignore years of judicial precedents upholding our right to use viewpoint neutral criteria in selecting candidates to participate in the Texas Debates. We are confident in our debate policy, and we will seek the speedy dismissal of this complaint as we have successfully with others in the past.
The Criteria for Candidate Participation in KERA Broadcast Debates is posted at www.TexasDebates.org.
Here’s a link to the page: http://www.texasdebates.org/criteria.php
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKGBT