NH Primary Source: NHDP push to expand debate diversity gains traction at state chairs group meeting
New Hampshire Primary Source gives you breaking and behind-the-scenes news and analysis on all things political in the Granite State. John DiStaso is the most experienced political writer in the state and has been writing a weekly column since 1982. He is a recipient of a 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the New Hampshire Press Association. To sign up for WMUR's weekly New Hampshire Primary Source and political email newsletter, click here.
DIVERSITY RESOLUTION. It wasn’t planned. New Hampshire Democratic National Committeewoman Kathy Sullivan says it came up “organically.” But it drew the attention of the DNC.
A resolution approved unanimously by about 50 members of the New Hampshire Democratic State Committee during a quarterly meeting in Plymouth on Saturday called on the DNC to “lift the barriers as to who can qualify for the Democratic Presidential Primary debates.”
We first reported on the move on Sunday. View our report here.
Although the number of members who voted unanimously in a voice vote in favor of the resolution was far from a quorum of the 260-member state committee, it was a significant statement nonetheless.
The resolution called for a relaxation of the gradually toughening debate thresholds “on the basis of ensuring greater diversity with regard to gender, race, and personal financial resources.”
New Hampshire has been under attack – as it often has in the past -- for not being diverse enough to be the home of the first-in-the-nation primary. But New Hampshire Democrats, while sensitive to the criticism, are also showing that they are mindful of a need for a diverse field of candidates to survive at least the early part of the nomination process.
The resolution asked the DNC leadership in Washington to “revisit the current qualifying requirements in support of providing Democratic voters with greatest opportunity to hear from all our 2020 presidential candidates.
“We must be seen as the party of opportunity and fairness for any Democratic candidate desiring to run for public office. It is essential if we want to build turnout for the general election,” the resolution said.
Sullivan said there was no prior plan to pass a resolution. She said the idea came up after she presented her regular report on DNC activities at the meeting.
In her report, she mentioned that last week, she participated in a conference call with other DNC members, and she said that during the call, she asked if there was an opportunity for the debate requirements to be more flexible.
“And the answer came back, no, and that we’re very proud of having the most diverse field in history,” Sullivan told us this week. “I said at our meeting that it does not look like we’re going to have any changes to this process. People in the audience were not happy about the rules, and one member asked if we can have a resolution.”
State Sen. Martha Fuller Clark of Portsmouth, first vice chair of the NHDP, and others drafted the resolution on the spot.
And on Wednesday, Fuller Clark took it a step further. She tried to win the support of a powerful party group – the Association of State Democratic Chairs -- at its meeting in Austin, Texas. The ASDC is composed of the chairs and vice chairs of the state parties across the country and is affiliated with the DNC.
While Fuller Clark had hoped for direct action to relax the requirements of the DNC’s January debate, the ASDC’s executive committee would not go that far and tabled her proposal until after the 2020 election.
But NHDP chair Raymond Buckley told us Wednesday night from Texas that the ASDC’s executive committee voted to create a working committee “to look at all aspects of the debates.” A DNC spokesperson said the working group will revise the language of the resolution -- after the 2020 election.
Fuller Clark was named a member of the committee.
“I’m pleased that Sen. Fuller Clark’s leadership is being recognized with her appointment to this important committee,” said Buckley, a former longtime ASDC president.
“The members of the executive committee praised her efforts to bring the issue forward.”
The DNC, meanwhile, says that it sets the debate criteria along with the media partners for each debate. The thresholds for the seventh debate, in January, have yet to be announced.
The thresholds for the party’s sixth debate, to be held next Thursday in Los Angeles, were set back in October. To qualify, candidates must register at least 4 percent support in at least four national polls approved by the DNC or 6 percent support in two single-state polls in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina or Nevada that were conducted between Oct. 16 and tonight, Dec. 12, at 11:59 pm ET.
Candidates must also certify that they received donations from at least 200,000 unique donors, including at least 800 per state in 20 states, U.S. territories, or Washington, D.C.
As of late Wednesday, next week’s stage still has an obvious lack of racial diversity. Qualifying were former Vice President Joe Biden; South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg; Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar; Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders; California billionaire Tom Steyer and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. It’s noteworthy that Sen. Kamala Harris would have qualified for the debate if she had remained in the race, but she dropped out last week.
“A lot of people believe that the DNC is trying to pick winners and losers and that it’s reflecting badly on the Democratic Party,” Fuller Clark said prior to the ASDC meeting. “It’s not our role as Democrats to pick winners and losers, and I think if they raise the bar too high, they will be doing that.
“There is a perception that we’re having a negative impact on the candidates who are low in the polling, and a number of those candidates do provide racial diversity,” she said. “We need to make sure that we create an open field and are as fair as possible in regard to gender, race and personal finances – and not let a small core of people dominate the process.”
In a statement Sunday on the NHDP resolution, the DNC said its criteria have remained “extremely low” throughout the debate process, but it also noted, “Nobody who has failed to reach 4 percent at this point in the race has gone on to be the nominee, and our debate criteria reflect that.”
But Fuller Clark said the DNC is missing the point that there is currently a historically large field of candidates, and as a result, many voters remain undecided.
“People like many of these candidates but haven’t chosen one particular candidates. That’s why those percentages are lower in some cases,” she said.
Sullivan agreed.
“There have been some unintended consequences as a result of the rules,” Sullivan said.
“We’re in a situation where we have elected officials, a former Cabinet member (Julian Castro) and a former governor (Deval Patrick) who will not qualify. And then you have (former New York City Mayor) Michael Bloomberg, who has not done any fundraising and won’t qualify for a debate but is spending a tremendous amount of money nationally. He may pick up delegates, even though he may not qualify for any of the debates.
“Another unintended consequence is you end up having a debate panel that does not reflect the diversity of the country, of the party or of the field, which to me is very unfortunate,” said Sullivan.
“We’ve all seen this year is a different year than past years. I hope they do reconsider and figure out how to get more people on the stage. It’s not a good look for the party for people to think that the party is not supportive of diversity.”
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(John DiStaso can be reached at jdistaso@hearst.com or distasoj@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jdistaso and on Facebook: Facebook.com/JohnDiStasoWMUR.)