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First Forum
Primary Debates and Forums
P H O T O
Monday, August 3, 2015 in Dana Center at Saint Anselm College in
Manchester, NH from 7:00-9:00 p.m. ET.
Press
Release | More
Pre-Debate
|
Photos
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Post-Debate
Sponsors: New
Hampshire Union Leader | C-SPAN | New
Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College |
WGIR-AM Radio (Manchester) & I-Heart Networks |
Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette | KCRG –TV (Cedar Rapids,
IA) | Charleston SC Post & Courier |
WLXT-TV (Columbia, SC).
Candidates: Jeb Bush, Ben Carson,
Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina, Lindsey Graham, Bobby Jindal,
John Kasich, George Pataki, Rick Perry, Rick
Santorum, Scott Walker; and Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio via
video. [14 total...missing were Gilmore, Huckabee and Trump]*
Moderator:
Jack
Heath
of
WGIR-AM
in
Manchester.
Audience:
A
limited
number
of
public
tickets
were
available.
People
could
register
for
up
to two tickets through a ticket lottery which
ended on July 27.
Ticket holders were selected in a random drawing on July 29.
Broadcast: C-SPAN TV, C-SPAN Radio and via livestream on C-SPAN.org. Hearst Television provided the C-SPAN telecast to its local stations reaching 21 million households in 27 markets.
Format:
"Each
candidate
will
have
approximately
five
minutes
to
answer
questions
individually
on
the
stage."
Overview:
After
the
multitude
of
candidate forums and debates in 2011-12, the RNC established a
Standing
Committee on Presidential Primary Debates to limit the number of these
event. At its Winter Meeting
in Jan. 2015 the party announced nine
sanctioned debates between Aug. 2015 and March 1, 2016 (+). On
May 6 FOX News Channel announced details of the first Republican
presidential primary debate, to be held in Cleveland, OH on August
6. FOX's criteria limiting the number of candidates to ten came
under criticism. For example, in a June 10 letter, New Hampshire
Republican leaders wrote, "Historically, it has been the
responsibility of
early primary and caucus states to closely examine and winnow the field
of
candidates, and it is not in the electorate’s interest to have TV
debate criteria
supplant this solemn duty." In response, in June FOX announced a
second forum for those not qualifying for the debate.
The forum came together relatively
quickly. In mid-July
publishers of three early
state newspapers--the New Hampshire Union
Leader, the Charleston Post
& Courier and th Cedar Rapids Gazette announced the Voters
First
Forum to provide voters "an opportunity
to see the candidates together on a level playing field at this early
stage."
*In a July 28 letter to Union Leader
publisher Joe McQuaid, Trump wrote “...knowing you as I do, I feel it
is unlikely I will be getting the endorsement from you and the Union
Leader. I have made a great fortune based on instinct and that,
unfortunately, is my view. Therefore, and for other reasons including
the fact that I feel there are too many people onstage to have a proper
forum, I will not be attending.” - See more at: http://www.unionleader.com/article/20150729/NEWS060501/150729077#sthash.oLz5Rt6t.dpuf
A Huckabee spokesman cited a
scheduling conflict.
The three Senators who appeared by
video were in Washington, DC for a Senate vote.