A former Democratic National Committee chairman is defending the current DNC leadership from charges that it has sanctioned too few debates in the presidential primary season.
Don Fowler, who served as DNC chairman from 1995 to 1997, said in an interview with the Washington Examiner media desk that the total of six debates planned by the DNC are plenty for voters to decide who should be the party’s nominee.
“I think that stretched out over the months between now and Iowa, four debates are enough,” said Fowler, who is now a political science professor at the University of South Carolina and still a member of the DNC. “And then there are two more scheduled after that that will take care of the competition that will remain.”
The DNC has stirred controversy for scheduling just six debates for the Democratic presidential primary season. Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley, two candidates in the race who are trailing controversy-prone frontrunner Hillary Clinton, have complained that six is too few and that voters would benefit from more opportunities to see all of the top candidates on one stage at the same time.
Clinton has not said whether she would support adding more debates to the schedule, though in 2008, when she was competing against then-Sen. Barack Obama, she did say that more debates are beneficial to voters. Fowler also defended Clinton’s changed view of how many debates there should be.
“Eight years is plenty enough time to change your mind,” said Fowler, who is supporting Clinton. “Just entirely different circumstances. I think that 2015 and 2016 are entirely different in terms of personalities and competition in terms of opportunities to be heard.”
The first Democratic debate is scheduled for Oct. 13.
