Ken Berwitz
In a major victory for underdog Democratic presidentialcandidates Martin O\’Malley and Bernie Sanders, two top officials with theDemocratic National Committee publicly broke with the party Wednesday night,calling for changes to the debate process that the candidates have advocated.
Ina joint statement posted to Facebook, Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard andformer Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, both vice chairs for the DNC, called forincreasing the number of debates and said a so-called exclusivity clause was a “mistake.”
“Asvice chairs of the Democratic National Committee, we are calling for severalmore debates than the six currently scheduled, and withdrawing the proposedsanctions against candidates who choose to participate in non-DNC sanctioneddebates,” they wrote.
The committee this year scheduled only six debates and instituted acontroversial rule that punishes candidates who participate in unsanctioneddebates by barring them from future official events. O\’Malley, a formerMaryland governor, and Sanders, a senator from Vermont, have complained loudlyabout the clause, accusing the DNC of writing the rule to protect front-runnerHillary Clinton.
Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz is closing the door on adding more Democratic presidential debates, and said a controversial clause penalizing candidates for participating in unsanctioned debates would stand.
Speaking at a breakfast with reporters hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, Wasserman Schultz, who has been under fire by Democratic presidential candidates and some within the DNC, said the debate schedule was final and there would be no changes.
“We\’re not changing the process. We\’re having six debates,” she said. “The candidates will be uninvited from subsequent debates if they accept an invitation to anything outside of the six sanctioned debates.”
