LAS VEGAS — The Republican National Committee is proposing to sponsor a series of monthly presidential primary debates beginning in August and running through February in which it would determine the format and require each participating candidate to raise money for the party at the event, according to an e-mail obtained by Politico.
In a message sent Friday night, James Bopp, the party’s Indiana committeeman and chairman of a special debate committee, asked aides to potential GOP candidates to agree to six RNC-sanctioned debates in which “the RNC or its designee may at its discretion determine the time, place, co-sponsors, format, subject matter, moderators, and participants.”
Under the plan, the candidates would still be allowed to participate in other, non-party-sanctioned debates. But the RNC is offering an incentive to lure the hopefuls to their plan: access to the party’s vast fundraising list and voter file.
The debt-wracked national party, led by chairman Reince Priebus, is working feverishly to raise money and is trying to be creative about how to pay back the $21 million it owed as of the end of February.
Politico
