Posted on 04/26/2007 1:38:12 PM PDT by areafiftyone
Fox News will have a say in deciding which Republican presidential candidates participate in next month's debate in South Carolina.
State Party chairman Katon Dawson and a spokesman for the news channel said Thursday that they had agreed on a criteria, including polling numbers, for choosing which of the 10 GOP candidates will take part in the May 15 debate.
"We understand there's not room for everybody on a nationwide political stage for a Republican debate," Dawson said.
Marty Ryan, executive producer of political programming for Fox News Channel, said the polling criteria would ensure "that serious candidates were taking part in our debate."
The party sent a letter to the candidates saying they must have filed papers establishing an exploratory committee or full-blown candidacy and paid the fees associated with the state primary.
They also must have "garnered at least 1 percent in recent state and national polls leading up to the registration deadline, as determined by Fox News Channel and the South Carolina Republican Party," according to Rob Godfrey, the state party's communications director.
In a variety of national and state polls, seven of the 10 candidates hover around 1 percent or less. Only Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Mitt Romney easily meet the criteria based on polling.
The standard has the potential to bar several candidates from the debate and anger the lesser-known GOP hopefuls.
Dawson said the criteria was jointly developed so "we wouldn't have people who were just willing to pay a filing fee and think that they could show up and be on the stage. There are a lot of people who would like to be able to vent their special interests on a presidential stage."
"If you're not in the poll number and you haven't met the criteria, no, you won't be able to get on the stage," he said.
State parties run the presidential primary balloting in early voting South Carolina. Presidential hopefuls must file with the state GOP and pay their primary entry fee by May 1 to qualify to participate in the May 15 debate in Columbia. Giuliani was the first to do so last week. McCain did so on Thursday.
All 10 Republican candidates will be participating in the first Republican debate next Thursday at the Reagan Library in California.
Well, with as much as they’ve been plugging Rudy lately, I’m surprised they’ll actually allow a debate.
Rudy will be on stage at the Democratic Debates where he will agree with everything that Hillary says.
Fox News is not touting Rudy - Rudy makes news whether its good or bad. Are they supposed to ignore him just because Freepers don’t like him? All the polls besides Fox show Rudy leading also and they don’t tout Rudy. Sean Hannity is just one person at Fox - the rest don’t seem to care about Rudy. Where do you seem them touting Rudy?
Uh-oh...
I have a feeling some of FR’s beloved vanity candidates might put on their Ralph Nader hats and start crying about not being let in the debates...
But it's kind of silly to include four candidates with about 1.1% support and exclude three with 0.9% support (for example).
Sounds like the debate won’t be worth watching, if they limit it to the big 3. Someone should set up a counter debate at the same time, and invite the conservatives.
Personall, I wish they would let them all debate.
I hope they allow Duncan Hunter. Since he is almost never a choice in national polls, it’s a long shot.
I hope they allow Duncan Hunter. Since he is almost never a choice in national polls, it’s a long shot.
This early I would tend to agree.
But when you get 10-15 people “debating” it never seems to work out that well.
I suspect that some will drop out after they feel that they’ve gotten a fair hearing in front of the public.
I think Duncan will be in the debate.
(Yes, I am that bored to notice things like this!)
Didn’t FOX used to have a show called The Biggest Loser, or something like that? Don’t know why I just thought of that...
LOL! That’s only because he’s the front runner so far. If anyone else pushes past Rudy you’ll see their picture more often. Probably it will be FT if he runs. I’m sure he will push past or go neck in neck with Rudy.
Tommy Thompson 4%
Sam Brownback 2%
Duncan Hunter 2%
Mike Huckabee 1%
Ron Paul, Jim Gilmore, Chuck Hagel 0%
Gilmore and Paul are the only ones on the bubble, really. (I think Hagel is eliminated for other reasons.) Huckabee was at 3% and 4% in prior polls.
Tancredo has announced since then.
“Rudy will be on stage at the Democratic Debates where he will agree with everything that Hillary says.”
Isn’t the first Democratic debate to be this evening? Does anyone know what time and if the debate will be covered on C-SPAN or other station? Thanks for any info!
Someone should set up a counter debate at the same time, and invite the conservatives.
7 p.m. EST, MSNBC.
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