A televised interview with Bill Van Auken, Socialist Equality Party candidate for US Senate, was broadcast Friday evening in Rochester, New York. The television station, ABC’s Channel 13 WHAM, aired Van Auken’s interview little more than an hour prior to the first debate between Democratic incumbent Senator Hillary Clinton and her Republican challenger John Spencer, which was held at the University of Rochester.

Thousands of viewers heard Van Auken condemn the undemocratic methods that excluded him as well as all other candidates from the Clinton-Spencer debate.

“It wasn’t just me who was excluded from this debate,” he said “It was millions of New Yorkers who want an end to the war, who oppose the sweeping attacks on democratic rights and who want to see a halt to the staggering growth of social inequality in this state and across the country. They too were denied a voice.”

More than 215,000 people live in Rochester, a city that has been hard hit by layoffs affecting workers from Kodak and Xerox as well as a Delphi plant.

The interview will be broadcast several times between now and November 3 during the 5:00 p.m. evening news. The television station, a Clear Channel affiliate, is the only major New York media that has interviewed Van Auken. The station invited all federal candidates to broadcast a five-minute statement in addition to a question-and-answer exchange with one of the Channel 13 newscasters.

The interview can be accessed on the Channel 13 web site at: http://www.13wham.com/vote/