The fireworks began early at the Republican presidential debate — with candidates erupting over their greenroom space, or lack thereof.
The Republican National Committee decided to delegate space to the campaigns based on their poll ranking, and that decision left Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie with little more than a closet attached to a bathroom.
Meanwhile, front-runner Donald Trump and neurosurgeon Ben Carson were given lavish rooms, complete with leather couches and flat-screen televisions. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and his team got a theater room. Businesswoman Carly Fiorina’s digs had a Jacuzzi.
An adviser for Mr. Paul, Chris LaCivita, took to his Twitter feed to voice his frustration — and show pictures of their set up.
“#CNBCDebate walkthru: guess which green room belongs to @realDonaldTrump and which belongs to@RandPaul #thanksRNC,” Mr. LaCivita tweeted — displaying pictures of their toilet versus Mr. Trump’s spacious spread.
“The debate walkthru took forever and was really heated as many campaigns complained about their greenrooms — I mean Rand Paul really did get a closet,” said one source present.
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Another staffer said: “There is greenroom DRAMA going on over here.”
Mr. Paul’s team complained to the RNC staff during a 30-minute meeting at the Coors Event Center, where the debate will be held Wednesday night. The center is an 11,064-seat multipurpose arena on the Boulder main campus of the University of Colorado — and apparently doesn’t have enough rooms to host all 10 presidential candidates who will be on the main stage suitably.
At the last debate, at the Reagan Presidential Library, every campaign got a trailer outside of the library to both prep for the event and house their staff during it.
The RNC on Tuesday agreed to address the greenroom problem — as it served as a distraction throughout the evening.
“Thanks to everyone at @GOP for bending over backwards to acquire great working conditions for team Paul,” Mr. LaCivita tweeted, showing a picture of a table with four chairs and a printer — arguably a better set up than the prior closet with a toilet.
On Fox News, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus addressed the controversy.
“I think all of it has been resolved,” Mr. Priebus said on “America’s Newsroom.” “I had a beer last night with one of the campaign managers from Rand Paul. He’s perfectly fine. I think we’ve got bigger problems than worrying about greenrooms, but I do think the candidates should be comfortable. These are not facilities that have 14 greenrooms. This is a gym turned into a debate stage.”
• Kelly Riddell can be reached at kriddell@washingtontimes.com.
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