Unsanctioned Democratic debate scheduled for next week in NH

Hosted by the New Hampshire Union Leader newspaper, the event will be broadcast on MSNBC and moderated by MSNBC personalities Chuck Todd and Rachel Maddow, the Union Leader announced Tuesday afternoon.

“Any candidate or debate sponsor wishing to participate in DNC debates, must agree to participate exclusively in the DNC-sanctioned process”, the DNC said in May.

Sanders has recently been drawing near or even, overtaking Clinton in some opinion polls as the first voting draws near.

“Our readers have demanded a debate to help them see who is most fit to be the Democratic nominee for President”, said Joseph W. McQuaid, president and publisher of the Union Leader.

The paper did not say which candidates were invited or whether any of them had accepted ahead of the February 9 New Hampshire primary. Sanders and Clinton did not immediately respond to request for comment. “That’s why Governor O’Malley was the only Democratic candidate for President to consistently call out the DNC for its unprecedented role in silencing debate, and to lead the charge for more debates”, John Bivona, O’Malley’s New Hampshire state director, said in a statement.

The DNC, like its counterparts at the Republican National Committee, took a firmer hand this cycle over the debate process and threatened to exclude candidates who take part in so-called “unsanctioned” debates from participating in those officially scheduled – two of which still remain.

Democratic officials have been under fire for months for their primary debate schedule, which is not only less than half the amount of the Republican contests, but often on weekends when voters are less likely to be watching.

Many complaints have been lodged at the DNC for the debate schedule, which included debates the Saturday before Christmas and the Sunday of a three-day weekend. But party leaders have refuted the notion of a Clinton advantage and defended the relatively small number of debates (half as many as Republicans planned). However, there are no debates slated between the February 1 Iowa caucuses and the February 9 New Hampshire primary. “We were always concerned that this would have been the first time in 32 years without a Democratic debate before the New Hampshire primary”.

McQuaid told The Huffington Post that he “can’t imagine that the Democratic candidates, post-Iowa, would want to be seen as breaking with a New Hampshire tradition”.