So the Senate candidates will debate — on Pearl Harbor Day — at a press-sponsored event at the Capitol. But not all of the candidates will be on the stage. Just Tim Kaine and George Allen. Is this the Richmond press corps’ high-handed way of narrowing the field? Looking at the criteria for getting into the debate, it’s a possibility:
Besides Allen and Kaine, eligible participants include any declared candidates that average 15 percent or better in published, non-candidate primary polls and have raised at least 20 percent as much money as their party’s frontrunner by the end of October.
I can understand establishing a polling cut off — some may not like it, but it’s an old and accepted tool for keeping gadflies off the stage (and out of the public eye). But the addition of a byzantine fundraising bar is rather gratuitous. In effect, it guards against the possibility, however remote, that a candidate who polls well, but can’t raise much money (or, say, refuses to take contributions from out of state, or take donations larger than a $100, or only begins pulling down serious cash after the established deadline) would appear on stage. That ought to take care of future tea partiers.
Or turn the equation around — a candidate with bags and bags of money in the campaign till who falls short of the 15 percent bar would be out, too. So much for self-funders, then.
What the pressies have done, then, is chosen a format that makes their job easier and keeps the narrative simple. What it doesn’t do is allow for game-changers, surprises, new ways of looking at old topics or even (gasp!) an alternative narrative to develop.
What a shame.
