DNC Refuses Cory Booker’s Request They Change The Rules So He Can Qualify For Debate

However, it seems like the DNC has refused the request.

Politico has more to say:

The Democratic National Committee is pushing back against a request from the party’s presidential candidates to change debate requirements to allow Cory Booker and Julián Castro to appear on the January stage. 

 

The letter, sent to the DNC Saturday afternoon, is signed by Booker, Castro and all seven presidential candidates who have already qualified for the December debate. It urges the committee to alter its debate qualifications for the January and February debates in a way that would allow Booker and Castro and potentially several other candidates to appear. 

                                                                                                                                                                

The candidates asked the DNC to return its qualifications to either achieving the threshold through polling or through individual contributors — rather than requiring candidates to reach both. Booker and Castro have reached donor thresholds for debates, but not polling. 

                

But the DNC resisted the request in a statement shared with POLITICO: “The DNC has led a fair and transparent process and even told campaigns almost a year ago that the qualification criteria would go up later in the year — not one campaign objected. The DNC will not change the threshold for any one candidate and will not revert back to two consecutive nights with more than a dozen candidates. Our qualification criteria is extremely low and reflects where we are in the race. Once voting starts in February, our criteria will reflect those contests, which is more than appropriate. We’re proud to have given candidates so many opportunities to get their message across, and will continue to have fair criteria that reflects each point in the race.” 

 

Another DNC official said that “multiple campaigns have privately signaled to the DNC their frustration with the large debate stage and asked them to hold the line.” 

 

The Booker campaign was the driving force behind the effort to convince other campaigns to sign, according to several presidential campaign operatives familiar with the discussion. 

 

The lobbying annoyed at least one other campaign that didn’t understand why they should help out a rival who had missed the clearly stated debate criteria. 

ABC News also said:

In a sternly worded statement responding to Booker’s letter, the DNC resisted his request while also defending the debate qualifying criteria.

"The DNC has led a fair and transparent process and even told campaigns almost a year ago that the qualification criteria would go up later in the year — not one campaign objected,” DNC Communications Director Xochitl Hinojosa said. “The DNC will not change the threshold for any one candidate and will not revert back to two consecutive nights with more than a dozen candidates. Our qualification criteria is extremely low and reflects where we are in the race."

Warren backed Booker’s request and said she did so because she believes that, “while we’re still in the Democratic primary debates that we are to have a more open field, and hear from more voices and narrowing it too soon means we’re not going to hear from everyone."

The demands for looser qualification thresholds bookends a contentious week between the seven candidates that have qualified for the debate and the DNC. The debate is slated to take place at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, on Thursday, but all seven candidates who qualified for the debate have threatened to skip it if a dispute between labor union Unite Here 11 and the company contracted to handle services for the university, Sodexo, isn’t resolved. A spokesperson for the labor union told ABC News they have agreed to return to the negotiating table with Sodexo on Tuesday or sooner.