Dave Hamrick, Campaign Manager for Martin O’Malley for President, Writes Other Campaigns on Debates
Memorandum RE: Additional Debates
From: Dave Hamrick, Campaign Manager for O’Malley for President
To: Robby Mook, Hillary for President; Jeff Weaver, Bernie 2016; Craig Crawford, Jim Webb 2016; Jonathan Stevens, Chafee 2016,.
Date: September 13, 2015
To my fellow campaign managers:
I’m writing you today on the topic of the Democratic Presidential primary debates, and urging that you join our campaign’s call for the Democratic National Committee to drop its unprecedented and undemocratic exclusivity clause and take themselves out of the debate process. The reasons for this are simple: by limiting the number of debates Democrats hold this year, the DNC is allowing the Republican presidential candidates—namely, Donald Trump—to dominate the national debate, and whoever our nominee is will emerge stronger as the result of a vigorous debate process.
As I’m sure you saw this week, the debate over Democratic debates reached a fever pitch. DNC Vice Chairs Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and Mayor R.T. Rybak joined dozens of leaders in early states, like New Hampshire and Iowa, to call for additional Democratic Presidential primary debates. In their statement, the Vice Chairs called the current schedule—and the unprecedented and punitive exclusivity clause—“a mistake” that will lead people to “feel excluded from our political process.” They called for “several more debates than the six currently scheduled, and withdrawing the proposed sanctions against candidates who choose to participate in non-DNC sanctioned debates.”
Despite the growing consensus that the Democratic Party will benefit from additional debates, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz has refused to budge from the current schedule, which allows just four debates before the Iowa Caucus and only one debate in Iowa and one debate in New Hampshire before the voters weigh in. This is a huge divergence from the last Democratic Presidential Primary, when Democrats held eight debates before the Iowa Caucus, including 5 in Iowa. In total, Democrats held 25 debates that year and out of the process managed to produce President Barack Obama and “the best election result for the Democratic Party in 44 years.”
Because the DNC Chair seems unfazed by the deluge of negative attention the committee has received from DNC members and vice chairs, editorial boards, elected leaders in early states, labor leaders, and even her predecessor, Howard Dean, it is critical that we send a strong and unified message that Democrats will not cede the national debate to Donald Trump. So, today I’m asking you sign on to a letter to the DNC with our campaign calling for additional debates before February 1.
Specifically, we are asking for 2 additional weeknight, non-holiday peak season debates in Iowa and New Hampshire respectively, and 1 additional weeknight, non-holiday peak season debate in South Carolina and Nevada, respectively.
We can all agree on moderators, locations, dates and times, and hosts. We can discuss format and rules. But let's commit to this: let's commit to more debates.
I eagerly await your response and look forward to bringing a more open and transparent debate process to the American people.
Respectfully,
Dave Hamrick
