Mitch Perry
Five days before the Democrats hold their first presidential debate of the political season, the Democratic National Committee announced on Thursday night that the sixth and final officially scheduled debate will take place in Miami on March 9, six days before the March 15 presidential primary in Florida.
It will be jointly sponsored by Univision and the Washington Post. The venue has not been announced yet.
“Florida is a critical swing state with a diverse population, and it’s one of the states that got hit the hardest by the recession – too many Floridians lost their homes, their jobs, or both, said Christina Freundlich, a DNC spokeswoman. “We’re thrilled to partner with Univision to host one of our six DNC debates in recognition of the important and growing role Latinos play in our electorate. Our Democratic candidates will provide a sharp contrast with Republicans – including two on their home turf — not only on the issues impacting the Latino community, but on the entire middle class and families across the country.”
DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz has been the subject of criticism by Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley and others in the party for only scheduling six official debates. That’s roughly the same number of official debates the DNC has hosted in previous presidential cycles. The difference is that there were many more “unofficial” debates that were held in both 2004 and 2008, with 17 such debates in 2007-2008. This time around, the DNC has imposed an “exclusivity” clause for the first time, which would bar any candidate from future DNC-sanctioned events if they were to go outside the six official sanctioned events.
The Republican National Committee intends to have at least nine official debates. The first two, held in August and September, drew record ratings of over 20 million viewers in both cases.
The first Democratic presidential debate is scheduled to take place this coming Tuesday night, October 13 from Las Vegas on CNN, beginning at 9 p.m. Eastern time.
