Bobby Jindal might withdraw from the undercard debate next week in Colorado.
The Louisiana governor is lobbying the Republican National Committee and cable television network host CNBC to alter the eligibility criteria for the prime time debate. Jindal wants early state primary polling to count, versus just an average of national surveys. Jindal barely registers with voters nationally but is in the top 10 and rising in Iowa, and he could forgo the GOP’s third televised debate in favor of campaigning there if changes aren’t made.
In an interview Monday, Jindal campaign officials said they concluded that the RNC and CNBC have the flexibility to make adjustments in light of their decision to accede to the wishes of Donald Trump and Ben Carson to limit the debate to two hours, including commercials and opening and closing statements. That runs counter to CNBC’s original plan to air a debate that ran longer than two hours and skipped opening and closing statements.
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“The biggest disappointment is that the RNC and network have outsourced their power to Donald Trump, who believes in national health care and that George W. Bush is responsible for 9/11,” Jindal campaign spokeswoman Gail Gitcho said. “They completely caved to his demands.”
Jindal ranked eleventh, with just 0.8 percent, in the RealClearPolitics.com average of national GOP polls. He registered eighth, with 4 percent, in the average of Iowa surveys. The governor is campaigning almost exclusively in Iowa, with a strategy of using a surprise finish the Feb. 1 caucuses to catapult into contention. He ranks ninth in the Washington Examiner’s presidential power rankings.
The RNC declined to comment.
To accommodate a field of 17 major Republican presidential candidates at the start of the race, Fox News decided to broadcast an undercard debate for the contenders who didn’t meet the network’s threshold for support in an average of selected national polls. CNN, which broadcast the second GOP primary debate, followed suit, although the network altered its criteria midstream so as to include Carly Fiorina on the prime time stage under pressure from her campaign.
With Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former Gov. Rick Perry of Texas exiting the race since the summer, there was speculation that CNBC might decline to broadcast an undercard debate. The financial news network chose to do so after all. But an uproar among the candidates ensued when CNBC unveiled a format that called for eliminating opening and closing statements, ostensibly to allow for more debate time. The two front-runners, Trump and Carson, objected.
They threatened to skip the debate if CNBC did not meet their demand to limit the program to two hours, including commercials and opening and closing statements. Neither performed particularly well in the first two debates, although their poll numbers didn’t suffer, and neither needs the airtime. Trump, a billionaire businessman and reality television star, is a bona fide celebrity. Carson, a renowned pediatric neurosurgeon whose life was the subject of a movie, is a quasi celebrity.
“It’s a smart move for Trump and Carson. They have little to gain and a lot to lose by participating in the debate,” a GOP strategist said.
Meanwhile, the other candidates — most of whom could use the increase in name identification and attention that comes with the nationally televised debates — declined to protest the shortening of the debate. Only Fiorina made mention of it, with her spokeswoman tweeting: “Seems @JebBush isn’t only low energy guy! Looks like @realDonaldTrump @RealBenCarson don’t have endurance to debate @CarlyFiorina for 3hrs.”
Jindal is now the second candidate to lodge a protest of sorts. The question is whether anyone will notice, let alone care, given that the complainant is registering a blip nationally and eighth in Iowa. Jindal campaign advisors concede that they don’t have much leverage, and said they understand that Trump does, for obvious reasons.
But they seemed hopeful that the Louisianan’s threat to pull out of the undercard debate might cast attention on what they deemed the arbitrary and historically atypical criteria used to determine eligibility for the debates. Support in the early states is usually a factor, given that no nominee in recent memory has failed to win at least one of the first four primaries.
Team Jindal also seemed intent on shedding light on its view that the RNC, rather than taking control of the debate, has ceded the reigns to the networks, and to Trump. Among the Republican presidential contenders, Jindal has been among the most outspoken critics of the front-runner and his history of supporting liberal policies and criticizing Republicans, as he did this week when Trump essentially blamed President George W. Bush for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“If you use the criteria that CNBC used four years ago for this debate, Jindal would be on the [prime time] stage,” Jindal campaign manager Timmy Teepell said. “We are hopeful they don’t exclude us.”
