Third-party candidates will participate in expanded debate
Two third-party presidential candidates will participate in an expanded version of tonight’s debate between President Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney on satellite TV and online.
Green Party candidate Jill Stein and Justice Party candidate Rocky Anderson , who were not invited to the Obama-Romney debate, will respond to the same questions posed to Obama and Romney on Democracy Now!, an independent news program. Democracy Now! will show the Obama-Romney debate but pause after the major-party candidates’ responses to allow Stein and Anderson to deliver their own remarks.
The program will be broadcast live from Denver, the same city where Obama and Romney will debate.
Stein is a physician and a two-time candidate for governor of Massachusetts. Anderson is a former two-term major of Salt Lake City.
Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson will not participate in the expanded debate. Instead, he will offer his own responses to Obama-Romney debate questions on Twitter and Google+.
Johnson has begun a petition to be included in debates with Obama and Romney, who will face off twice more after tonight, and has collected almost 30,000 signatures. Johnson is a former two-term governor of New Mexico.
Callum Borchers can be reached at callum.borchers@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @callumborchers.
