Group increases pressure on GOP candidates to attend forum
WITH BREAKOUT BOX
By Bret Hayworth Journal staff writer | Posted: Wednesday, October 17, 2007
SIOUX CITY -- As the Divided We Fail group continues to prod Republican presidential candidates to commit to a Sioux City debate next week, the organization released poll information Tuesday that shows likely Iowa caucusgoers want the candidates to take part.
The Oct. 25 debate will address issues of health care and financial security, and those are top issues of concern with likely Iowa caucusgoers, Divided We Fail officials reported.
The Divided We Fail crew visited the Orpheum Theatre here nine days before the debate in order to drive home the point of how important participation by the candidates is to Iowans. The AARP poll of last week showed 82 percent of 502 likely Republican caucusgoers said it was important that Republican candidates participate.
Further, 92 of those polled said such financial security issues as savings, pension protection and Social Security will be important in their selection of a candidate to support in the 2008 presidential race.
AARP Iowa state director Bruce Koeppl said the poll illustrates that GOP candidates should take advantage of the opportunity to reach caucusgoers through the debate.
To date, three candidates -- John McCain, Mike Huckabee and Sam Brownback -- have committed to the debate, and Divided We Fail is pushing to get Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson to take part as well. Divided We Fail's senior campaign coordinator, Pete Jeffries, said he expects a few more to commit within a week. He said no Republican candidates have flatly ruled out attending the Sioux City debate.
Beginning Oct. 5, calls to (888) 578-7775 at Divided We Fail were routed to both the Iowa and national campaign offices of the Romney, Thompson and Giuliani campaigns. Since that time, more than 1,500 calls have gone to the three offices, Jeffries said.
Chris McGowan of the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce encouraged Siouxlanders to continue to press the candidates to participate. McGowan noted it is a big event, since Sioux City has never before been the site of a debate with national significance.
The debate will be broadcast live by Iowa Public Television from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and carried by more than 80 percent of PBS stations nationwide. That national reach is another reason the candidates should take part, Koeppl said.
He noted that five of the top six polling Democratic presidential candidates took part in a similar Divided We Fail forum in Davenport in September and that Barack Obama, the Democrat who didn't participate, took some criticism for his decision to opt out.
"People watched the (Davenport) forum, people are going to watch next week's forum," he said. "People expect the candidates to come and give their solutions to the issues."
He said health care and financial issues will get an airing that other debates haven't afforded.
"Most of these debates, forums, have focused on lots of different issues, frankly, process issues -- who is up, who is down," Koeppl said.
More than 1,100 tickets have been requested for the debate, with about 500 remaining.
Read more in Hayworth's Politically Speaking blog at siouxcityjournal.com/blogs
The debate
Three of the six GOP presidential hopefuls have committed to the debate; citizens are encouraged to call the Iowa campaign offices of the others to urge them to participate.
Who's in
John McCain, Mike Huckabee and Sam Brownback.
Who's not
Rudy Giuliani (515) 418-9000, Mitt Romney (515) 309-1990 and Fred Thompson (515) 270-2300.
The Oct. 25 debate will address issues of health care and financial security, and those are top issues of concern with likely Iowa caucusgoers, Divided We Fail officials reported.
The Divided We Fail crew visited the Orpheum Theatre here nine days before the debate in order to drive home the point of how important participation by the candidates is to Iowans. The AARP poll of last week showed 82 percent of 502 likely Republican caucusgoers said it was important that Republican candidates participate.
Further, 92 of those polled said such financial security issues as savings, pension protection and Social Security will be important in their selection of a candidate to support in the 2008 presidential race.
AARP Iowa state director Bruce Koeppl said the poll illustrates that GOP candidates should take advantage of the opportunity to reach caucusgoers through the debate.
To date, three candidates -- John McCain, Mike Huckabee and Sam Brownback -- have committed to the debate, and Divided We Fail is pushing to get Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson to take part as well. Divided We Fail's senior campaign coordinator, Pete Jeffries, said he expects a few more to commit within a week. He said no Republican candidates have flatly ruled out attending the Sioux City debate.
Beginning Oct. 5, calls to (888) 578-7775 at Divided We Fail were routed to both the Iowa and national campaign offices of the Romney, Thompson and Giuliani campaigns. Since that time, more than 1,500 calls have gone to the three offices, Jeffries said.
Chris McGowan of the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce encouraged Siouxlanders to continue to press the candidates to participate. McGowan noted it is a big event, since Sioux City has never before been the site of a debate with national significance.
The debate will be broadcast live by Iowa Public Television from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and carried by more than 80 percent of PBS stations nationwide. That national reach is another reason the candidates should take part, Koeppl said.
He noted that five of the top six polling Democratic presidential candidates took part in a similar Divided We Fail forum in Davenport in September and that Barack Obama, the Democrat who didn't participate, took some criticism for his decision to opt out.
"People watched the (Davenport) forum, people are going to watch next week's forum," he said. "People expect the candidates to come and give their solutions to the issues."
He said health care and financial issues will get an airing that other debates haven't afforded.
"Most of these debates, forums, have focused on lots of different issues, frankly, process issues -- who is up, who is down," Koeppl said.
More than 1,100 tickets have been requested for the debate, with about 500 remaining.
Read more in Hayworth's Politically Speaking blog at siouxcityjournal.com/blogs
The debate
Three of the six GOP presidential hopefuls have committed to the debate; citizens are encouraged to call the Iowa campaign offices of the others to urge them to participate.
Who's in
John McCain, Mike Huckabee and Sam Brownback.
Who's not
Rudy Giuliani (515) 418-9000, Mitt Romney (515) 309-1990 and Fred Thompson (515) 270-2300.
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Babs wrote on Oct 17, 2007 8:53 AM: