Although the next Presidential Election is more than two years away, the RNC yesterday moved to “dramatically cut the number of GOP primary debates” for 2016, Politico’s James Hohmann and Dylan Byers report. A group of 13 members, led by RNC chairman Reince Priebus, have been charged with choosing the date, location and networks for the election cycle:
In recent months, [Priebus] has met with political directors and bureau chiefs at the major networks — ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and Fox News — to air their thoughts and get a read on the networks’ thinking.
“It’s essentially a listening tour, they’re sharing their general ideas,” said Chuck Todd, NBC News political director and senior White House correspondent. “It was a very open, good conversation. They heard us out, we heard them out.”
AdvertisementBecause of last cycle’s circus-like atmosphere, and because of suspicions of liberal bias, some Republican constituents would like to ice out mainstream media journalists altogether. “The people running the debates need to be Republicans,” said Georgia GOP Chairman John Padgett.