Christie bumped to undercard debate
Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee will not be among the candidates on the main stage for the fourth Republican debate next week, the host network, Fox Business, announced Thursday. Lindsey Graham and former New York Gov. George E. Pataki learned that they did not get an invite – stoking speculation as to whether their sputtering campaigns can survive the damaging blow.
In order to qualify for the 9 p.m. (Eastern) prime-time debate, candidates needed to average at least 2.5 percent in the four most recent national polls.
Meanwhile, South Carolina Sen.
Mr. Christie and Mr. Huckabee will participate in the 6 p.m. debate along with former Sen.
The next debate will be Fox Business Network’s first debate. Rick Santorum, who won the Iowa caucuses in 2012, and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal in the early round.
I think this setback is far more devastating for Christie who appeared to have much more potential to reach a wider audience given that he hails from a blue state.
“If people in Christie’s campaign might suggest there’s a conspiracy for a few reason to keep him off the stage, you would look at the polls that Fox Business chose”, Scarborough said on “Morning Joe”. Assuming he will be unable to make it back to the main debate stage, he will then need to continue to have town hall meetings pretty much every day for the next three months. They also revisited questions about using polls with statistically insignificant differences between candidates as a means of elevating a few and devaluing others. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is actually moving faster up to the top than any other candidate.
Graham and Pataki – both of whom participated in preliminary debates in Ohio, California and Colorado – did not poll well enough to receive an invitation.
Immediately before the news broke, Christie adjourned a round-table meeting in Somersworth, N.H., where he discussed drug addiction and treatment with local law enforcement and advocates. The undercard event features just four candidates: Christie, Huckabee, former Pennsylvania Sen. But it’s also possible that momentum from winning the early primary states would set up a showdown between Christie (or another moderate candidate) and a “conservative alternative” in later primaries.
Exclusion from the main debate hurts Christie’s ability to raise campaign money, but it probably won’t force Christie to drop out of the race in the days ahead, said Seton Hall political science professor Matthew Hale.