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UPDATE ON STATUS OF GUBERNATORIAL, U.S. SENATE
DEBATES AT THE UPCOMING STATE GOP CONVENTION
Since last Saturday when I sent the first of two e-mails out requesting input from CRP State Central Committee members as to whether you wanted to have candidates for Governor, U.S. Senate and Attorney General debate at the convention, I am humbled to say that now over 40% of CRP members have let me know their opinion on the matter. By a ratio of over 10-1, members would like to see the Republican contenders debate at the convention!
In my last update, I told you that the CRP Board of Directors, of which I am a member, was scheduled to have a telephonic meeting this morning in order to vote on a resolution to invite the candidates to debate at the convention.
That said, we actually found out yesterday that, in fact, CRP Chairman Ron Nehring and senior staff members at the party had already been in contact with the major candidates for Governor and U.S. Senate (there was only one candidate vying for the GOP nomination for Attorney General at the time) to see if they would participate in a convention debate. Ultimately they were not successful in getting all of the candidates in either primary to agree to participate in such a convention debate.
Since the CRP had already reached out to campaigns, the proposed resolution before the board became unnecessary because it turns out the impediment to convention debates is not party leaders, but it is in fact the candidates (or at least one of them in each primary).
In fact, California Republican Party Chief Operating Office Brent Lowder issued this statement just minutes ago that reads, in part:
"…We are currently moving forward with a convention that has no planned debates in the GOP primaries for Governor or United States Senate because our discussions with the campaigns did not indicate that all candidates would participate. If we were to hear from all of the major candidates in either of those primaries that they would like the CRP to facilitate a debate at the convention, we would be pleased to do so."
— Brent Lowder, COO, California Republican Party
The reality is that the California Republican Party cannot "force" a debate. But you, as influential Republican leaders, can play an active role in pushing for debates at the convention.
I reached out to the campaigns of Meg Whitman for Governor, Steve Poizner for Governor, Chuck DeVore for U.S. Senate, Carly Fiorina for U.S. Senate, and Tom Campbell for U.S. Senate, and asked them for the most correct e-mail address for you to contact them directly and let them know your opinion about whether they should debate in front of the CRP membership at the convention.
I myself will send an email to all five campaigns as soon as I get this note off to you. I have asked each of the campaigns to please respond to you when you do write to them – be sure to let me know if they do not.
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ACTION ITEM
Send e-mails to these addresses, expressing your opinion about whether the candidates should debate at convention:
Steve Poizner: info@stevepoizner.com
Meg Whitman: Communications@megwhitman.com
Carly Fiorina: contact@carlyforca.com
Chuck DeVore: paul@chuckdevore.com
Tom Campbell: tom@campbell.org
If you want to cut and paste for Outlook or a similar program, here are all of the emails, separated by semi-colons:
info@stevepoizner; communications@megwhitman.com; contact@carlyforca.com; info@chuckdevore.com; tom@campbell.org
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In closing, do not let any of the campaigns tell you that they would be happy to participate in a debate if only they had received a formal invitation to do so. That is parsing words and is misleading. The Chairman of the CRP assures me that every one of these campaigns is aware that if they would like to debate at the convention, the CRP will happily facilitate that taking place!
Thank you, again, for all of your hard work for the party. I encourage you to get engaged this primary season, and work to get your favorite GOP candidates nominated. I know I speak for all of my colleagues on the CRP Board, here on the 50 yard line, when I tell you that we all stand ready to help drive all of our nominees down the field for a November touchdown!
Sincerely,
/s/Jon Fleischman
Vice Chairman, South – California Republican Party |
February 18th, 2010 at 12:00 am
Hold the debate in prime time and any candidates who don’t show will have forfeited the time in front of an audience of GOP delegates and VIPs to their opponent. Their loss.