ABC’s Ted Koppel will host a special town hall edition of Nightline, that will be broadcast from the University. The show will be taped Oct. 31 at the Proscenium Theater in Rarig Center on the West Bank.
The show will center around how third parties fit into a political landscape dominated by two mainstream parties. Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura and Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader will appear on the show to discuss their experiences as prominent third-party candidates.
The program will air live on KSTP-TV in the Twin Cities and be re-broadcast nationwide later during Nightline’s regular time slot.
The event — sponsored by KSTP, the University’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the department of theater arts and dance — will be by invitation only, with tickets issued to students and faculty through the school of journalism.
Nightline is an award-winning television news magazine.
Ventura “shocked the world” when he won the state’s gubernatorial election in 1998 and has since served as a strong third-party symbol throughout the country. He is presently in Canada on a trade mission.
Nader has visited the University and the Twin Cities several times in the past few months and is considered the most viable minor-party shot at the presidency this election. He has been ranked third in many national polls, garnering 8 percent in the last Minnesota poll.
If Nader can draw at least 5 percent of the national vote, the Green Party will gain major-party status — something only the Democratic, Republican and Reform parties have.