The anger over Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz imposing strict controls and limits on the number of presidential primary debates will come to a head this week when hundreds of party officials gather in Minneapolis at the DNC’s summer meeting.
New Hampshire state Sen. Martha Fuller Clark, who is vice chair of the state Democratic Party, said that she plans to confront Mrs. Wasserman Schultz about the debate schedule during the summer meeting, which opens Thursday and runs through Saturday at the Hilton Minneapolis hotel.
“I’ll see her in Minneapolis and I’ll say, ’What’s the reason for this?’” said Mrs. Clark. “What I am going to say is that I think that the constraints they put around the debates is inappropriate and doesn’t reflect what the New Hampshire primary is all about.”
She said that the state party was determined to “bring more pressure.”
Democratic leaders across the country bristled at Mrs. Wasserman Schultz’s announcement earlier this month that the party would sanction only six presidential primary debates, delaying the first debate until October and threatening punitive action against any candidate or media outlet that break from the official schedule.
Some charged that the plan was set up to favor Hillary Rodham Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination who would have the most to loose on a debate stage, and disadvantage her rivals by depriving them of national TV exposure.
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Sen. Bernard Sanders, the Vermont independent and self-avowed socialist who has emerged as Mrs. Clinton’s chief rival and leads her in New Hampshire polls, spoke out against the schedule, as did former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, a Democratic presidential candidate who is struggling to attract attention in the race.
In New Hampshire, home to the nation’s first primary election, Democratic officials said that voters were being denied access to all the candidates by scheduling only one debate in the state in December.
“We don’t like the idea that the only formal debate is taking place in December. That’s nuts,” said Mrs. Clark. “We need to have a number of debates going on in the fall in New Hampshire for those who participate in the Democratic primary.”
Under the DNC schedule, the first four debates will occur one per month in early-voting states: Nevada in October, Iowa in November, New Hampshire in December and South Carolina in January, followed by a debate in Miami and one in Wisconsin with dates in February or March to be announced later.
Mrs. Wasserman Schultz has said that any candidate or media outlet that participates in debates outside the official schedule will be banned from the remainder of the party sanctioned debates in 2016.
Mrs. Clark said that she didn’t subscribe to the conspiracy theories about Mrs. Wasserman Schultz manipulating the schedule to help Mrs. Clinton. “I just think that they want to be in control,” she said.
Dissatisfaction with the debate schedule has been voiced by party officials and elected leaders at every level of New Hampshire government, with many pointing to the success of the recent GOP debate on Fox News that drew a record 24 million viewers.
State Sen. Lou D’Allesandro, a nine-term Democratic senator and iconic figure in New Hampshire politics, said he viewed the lack of TV debates as a disservice to voters. But he lamented that Mrs. Wasserman Schultz might not take his call if he attempted to intervene.
“I would like to have as many as possible. People like them. I think they do a great deal to help the candidates,” he said. “So, you know, I don’t run the DNC but it seems to me, the more the better.”
The Concord Monitor added its voice to the uproar with an editorial Wednesday that said the Democratic Party “seems to have gone out of its way to ensure a drama-free primary.”
The editorial called for Democratic official to rethink the schedule, the same message Mrs. Clark will take directly to Mrs. Wasserman Schultz in Minneapolis.
“The Democrats could use a little more drama and discussion. And having a single debate in New Hampshire, a mere six days before Christmas, isn’t the way to do that,” said the newspaper. “The voters deserve to hear about the party’s ideas and issues. The Republican Party scheduled twice as many debates as the Democrats, which is shameful given the magnitude of the challenges the country faces.”
Mrs. Wasserman Schultz did not respond to questions about the opposition within her party to the debate schedule.
When she announced the debate lineup, she said that waiting until October for the first debate and holding fewer debates during the primary contest would be good for candidates, voters and the party.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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