Green Party candidate Michael Morrill raised a justified stink about being left out of a Pennsylvania Newspaper Association event that will be broadcast at 3:45 p.m. on the Pennsylvania Cable Network.

The association invited only the major-party candidates - Democrats Robert P. Casey Jr. and Edward G. Rendell and Republicans Barbara Hafer and Mike Fisher. Even after Ms. Hafer dropped out of the race, Mr. Morrill wasn't asked to fill the empty chair. Now, in an awkward compromise, he's been invited to talk to the group for 15 minutes on Wednesday.

The Green Party is a legitimate, continuing party. The newspaper group erred in snubbing its nominee.

But the mistake stemmed from a larger problem: the lack of accepted ground rules for how to fit minor-party candidates into the debates that now so influence modern campaigns.

Here's the argument for excluding them: The other guys never win; the voters want to see just the candidates most likely to get into office.

That argument runs smack into a genuine chicken-or-egg problem. How can the parties ever build support or win if they never get into TV debates? Major-party candidates flop back and forth on whether to share the stages with Greens, Libertarians, etc. It all depends on how, in their view, wider participation will affect their chances of "winning" the debate. The decisions have nothing to do with upholding robust democratic dialogue. Nor with any appreciation for how third-party candidates can deepen the pool of ideas and puncture the pompous bromides.

In fact, deciding who gets a podium should have nothing to do with the major parties' wishes. It should depend on objective criteria for measuring the seriousness of a candidate, for example, the level of campaign effort, and the party's history of running candidates and garnering votes.

The way things usually go, major-party candidates see debates as being all about their needs. They're the stars; the sponsoring organizations and media are their producers.

That's just wrong. Candidates are not "stars." They are job applicants. The media are conducting a job interview on behalf of the boss - the voters. Job applicants don't get to bar other applicants from being interviewed. They don't get to stipulate the terms of the interview. They show up when they're told and answer the questions.

Despite this opening bobble, the media still have between now and November to get all that right during what promises to be a lively gubernatorial campaign.

Copyright 2002 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc

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