Candy Neville is battling against the assumption that there are only two candidates in the race for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate.

Today, Neville called the Portland City Club’s decision to invite only Jeff Merkley and Steve Novick to its April 4 public forum “exclusionary, prejudicial and elitist.”

According to Neville, by utilizing massive public media to promote their candidates, the club is “abusing the public trust by using this forum to promote and select the candidates of its choosing.”

Neville, who in the past has promoted her preference to run an old-fashioned ‘shoe-leather’ campaign which eschews large fundraising events, bristled against the club’s criteria that the candidate needs proof of strong fundraising to be invited to the forum.