Secretary of state, rival duke it out in minutes
Little ground gets covered in debate
To hear Jill Stein tell it, she had struck a blow for common people everywhere, the poor, the disadvantaged, the struggling taxpayers of the Commonwealth.
By finally getting Secretary of State William F. Galvin to agree to a debate yesterday, Stein said triumphantly, she had ensured that their voices would at last be heard, through her.
"If it has to be five minutes, then so be it," she said just before disappearing into the Boston Athenaeum, where Galvin and a moderator,
Stein, a Green-Rainbow Party candidate, had succeeded in getting Galvin into a debate, but Lincoln-Douglas it was not.
The ground rules: It was to be five minutes long, though it ended up lasting 16. There would be no audience, and it had to be held at an undisclosed location, which was an Athenaeum back room with a churchlike silence .
Standing just feet apart, she wore navy and wrung her hands, and he was in a charcoal suit and red tie.
"The secretary can be a shield, a watchdog for democracy," she said, accusing Galvin of allowing lobbyists to go unchecked on Beacon Hill.
"I think we've been very aggressive and very outspoken, and I think we've provided a lot of information," he said.
Galvin said that he has enforced lobbying laws and that he has filed 150 enforcement actions against lobbyists.
In his role as a financial services watchdog, he said, his office has returned $20 million to investors who were defrauded.
Keller, standing between them with a microphone, tried to inject some steam into the proceedings, barking "rebuttal" and "brief response."
At one point, when Stein and Galvin started talking over one another, Keller jumped in like a boxing referee. "One at a time, now.'
But they had already stopped.
Stein said Galvin has trampled on the voting rights of immigrants and brought unreliable polling equipment.
Galvin said that he has worked to protect voters' rights and that he outlawed punch-card voting machines in 1997, three years before they became the focus of attention in the 2000 presidential race in Florida.
The debate, which aired later on Keller's blog on CBS 4's web site, ended with a handshake.
"It was a very civil and respectful discussion," Stein said, emerging a few minutes after it ended.
Still, it is unlikely to change the course of the election.
Galvin, who has held the office for 12 years, has run his campaign as though there is no opponent worthy of one. Stein is his only opponent in the general election.
When he faced John Bonifaz in the September Democratic primary, Galvin was accused by a Somerville resident of hiding.
Stein said she has attempted for several weeks to have a debate with Galvin but that he refused.
She said Galvin declined an offer last week by a Charlestown High School history class and an offer by WGBH's Emily Rooney to debate Stein on her show, "Greater Boston."
Galvin said he has not been ducking Stein, but has been busy. In a telephone call later, he added, "We can't run off to every civics class, and say, 'Gee, let's have a debate.' "
Yesterday, he remained inside nearly 30 minutes after Stein left. He said he was on his cellphone, consulting with staff members and preparing for next week's election.
