BATON ROUGE - The first statewide TV debate in Louisiana's U.S. Senate race will go on as planned - without a judge adding anyone to the participant list.

Judge Tim Kelley refused Thursday to stop the debate or to force Louisiana Public Broadcasting and the Council for A Better Louisiana to add candidate Troy Hebert to the Oct. 18 debate stage.

Hebert, a former state lawmaker running without party affiliation, filed a lawsuit challenging the criteria as unfair. Two other candidates who didn't make the cut later joined him in the suit.

All three men, none of them lawyers, represented themselves over the two-day hearing.

Only five of the 24 Senate candidates met the debate criteria, which required participants to have raised at least $1 million and polled at 5 percent support.