Agran Complains of Exclusion : Campaign: Candidate’s absence from televised debates denies him national exposure needed for voter recognition and fund raising, he says.

Hundreds of people protested outside a television studio Sunday night in Manchester, N.H., to complain that former Irvine Mayor Larry Agran once again was being excluded from a nationally televised debate of major Democratic presidential contenders.

Carrying signs and chanting, “Don’t scab on democracy,” they asked the five candidates included in the debate not to cross their picket lines as a demonstration of support for Agran and New York psychologist Lenora Fulani, who also was not invited on the show.

Agran, who was previously denied participation in NBC’s Dec. 15 debate, in an interview Sunday night berated the better-known candidates for not taking action that he said would have persuaded the producers to let him go on the national broadcast in New Hampshire.

“Any one of them could have escorted me in,” he said. “These guys have the power and influence to stand up for the politics of inclusion. Instead they are small and scared.”

The state Democratic Party sponsored the debate and invited only the five major candidates. State party Chairman Chris Spirou said it was impossible to accommodate all 36 Democrats on the ballot for the state’s Feb. 18 primary, which will be the first in the nation.

Agran said that several of the candidates--including former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr., Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin and Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerry--recently issued statements in support of opening up the national debates to Fulani and himself.

Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and former Massachusetts Sen. Paul Tsongas also offered words of support as they entered the studio Sunday.

“But not one of them had the courage to back up their lip service with real action,” Agran complained.

Agran said he personally confronted Brown at the studio. “I said, ‘Jerry, you could be a hero for Democracy,’ ” but Brown didn’t respond, Agran said. “He looked like a scared rabbit.”

Agran said he is being allowed to appear with the other candidates on regionally televised debates, but the national debates are important for him to gain wide voter recognition and to boost his campaign’s national fund-raising efforts.

Agran said he has already received word that he will not be welcome at a debate to be televised Jan. 31 on the Public Broadcasting System. He said he will send a formal request today to the debate’s producers, who also produce the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour. Noting that MacNeil/Lehrer have broadcast news spots on his campaign, Agran said, “They have covered me as a presidential candidate, and for them not to invite me to participate is an act of political censorship.”

Agran said he hopes that his persuasion will earn him a spot on the PBS program and on another national debate scheduled to be telecast Feb. 16 on CNN. He said the League of Women Voters, which is sponsoring the CNN debate, has informed him that while it currently does not plan to extend him an invitation, it is willing to consider any documentation he has to prove that he meets the league’s criteria.