Cox Sues Over Debate

Republican presidential candidate John Cox asked a federal court to stop next week's GOP presidential debate unless he is allowed to take part.

Cox claims that the South Carolina Republican Party and Fox News Channel rigged their selection process to exclude him. According to the complaint, at issue is a requirement that the South Carolina Republican Party and FOX News used to decide who could participate in the debate. Candidates were required to obtain at least 1 percent of support in recent state and national polls leading up to the early May deadline for registering in the state's primary. Just prior to the May 1, 2007 deadline, the polling criteria was changed to reliance upon a single Fox News/Opinion Dynamics Poll conducted on April 1-3, 2007. That poll did not include Cox.

The complaint alleges that the polling criteria was changed because several of the candidates who filed for the South Carolina Republican Primary did not poll at least 1% in national and state polls and therefore would not be allowed to take part in the Debate. You can find the complaint here.

Cox isn't likely to get his way. Despite his efforts, Cox isn't taken as a serious presidential cadidate by the media or the Republican Party.