RNC Plans Primary Debate Fundraisers

Politico reports:

The Republican National Committee is proposing to sponsor a series of monthly presidential primary debates beginning in August and running through February in which the RNC would determine the format and require each participating candidate to raise money for the party at the event, according to an email obtained by POLITICO.

In a message sent Friday night, James Bopp, the party’s Indiana committeeman and chairman of a special debate committee, asked aides to potential GOP candidates to agree to six RNC-sanctioned debates in which “the RNC or its designee may at its discretion determine the time, place, co-sponsors, format , subject matter, moderators, and participants.”

Under the plan, laid out in a one-page memo co-signed by RNC Chief of Staff Jeff Larson, the candidates would still be allowed to participate in other, non-party sanctioned debates. But the RNC is offering an incentive to lure the hopefuls to their plan: access to the party’s vast fundraising list and voter file.

“Those candidates invited to participate in RNC-sanctioned debates will be allowed to participate in a list exchange with the RNC,” writes Bopp.

There’s no direct suggestion that any candidates who decline to join the party’s debates would be denied the lists, but that’s how at least one adviser to a potential candidate read it.

“Punishment,” said the adviser. “This is all about two things: hatred and mistrust of the media and money.”

There’s no doubt about the latter. The debt-racked national party, led by Chairman Reince Priebus, is working feverishly to raise money and is trying to be creative about how to pay back the $21 million they owed as of the end of February.

Bopp’s idea: make the candidates attend fundraisers held in conjunction with each month’s forum.

“If you participate in an RNC-sponsored debate you would attend a fundraising event the RNC may host at the debate in order to help raise money for the Presidential Trust,” he writes.

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