Peter LaVenia, the Green Party candidate in the Albany-area Senate seat held by Sen. Neil Breslin, is pushing for five debates with the incumbent.

The Green Party, much like other independent parties, have struggled to gain attention from the press, let alone that of their Republican and/or Democratic opponents.

But LaVenia says that if debates — even one — were mandatory, it would provide for some exposure not just of third-party challengers, but of the issues as well.

“We should have a tradiion that if you’re on the ballot you should have at least one debate with the challenger,” he said at a news conference earlier today.

And he added that just because the candidate is lower on the ballot line, they shouldn’t be ignored.

“I think that based on being on the ballot and having a campaign and having an incumbent shold take that seriously for the voters. Pragmatic politics aside, it can be an issue for incumbents or candidates to write off candidates in the Green Party and the Libertarians. But I think that leads to a dearth of democratic debate. I would like to see any Democrat or a Republican who has a challenger say we would like to see debates.”

Breslin, a Bethlehem Democrat, won his primary against Shawn Morse with 68 percent of the vote.

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