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PBS Plans Florida Presidential Primary Debates

Posted May 29, 2007 by William March

Updated May 29, 2007 at 12:18 PM

A partnership that held statewide broadcast debates during last year’s Florida gubernatorial and Senate races will seek to hold debates in each of the two parties’ presidential primaries shortly before the Jan. 29 state primary, they announced.

The partnership, including the Florida Public Broadcasting Service, Leadership Florida and the Florida Press Association, will propose statewide televised debates for the Republican primary candidates Jan. 23 and for the Democratic candidates Jan. 24, said Leadership Florida spokeswoman Wendy Abberger.

Like last year’s debates, they would be broadcast, in most cases live, on Florida’s public television stations.

Moderators haven’t been chosen yet, but Abberger said they probably would be chosen from among PBS’s big-name anchors—including Jim Lehrer and Gwen Ifill—and the debates also would use panels of print reporters.

The debate planners also plan to limit the participating candidates by including only those with poll standings above a certain level.

Last year, such plans ran into legal trouble, when Reform Party candidate for governor Max Linn went to court to seek admission to a PBS debate and a debate broadcast by Florida NBC stations, both of which had planned to omit him because of his 1 percent standing in the polls.

In both cases, trial-court judges ordered him admitted, but in the PBS debate, the ruling was appealed and overturned. In the NBC debate, Linn filed his case and got a favorable decision too late to allow for an appeal, and was hurriedly added at the last minute to the debate.

This year, Abberger said, “We’re going to have very clear criteria for participation,” including requirements for candidates to register a certain percentage in at least two polls, which will be announced well in advance. That, she said should defeat the legal arguments against the criteria used last year.

Abberger said it’s too early to expect the campaigns to commit to participating in the debates, but “We have had conversations with staff members. They’re well aware of the plans, and a number have given an early indication they would like to participate.”

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