Republican candidates for President will come to Calvin College on January 10, 2000 for a 90-minute debate (to be aired live on Grand Rapids NBC affiliate WOOD TV).
The Michigan Republican Presidential Debate is being hosted by WOOD TV, the state and West Michigan Republicans and Calvin College. The landmark event will be held from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the Fine Arts Center Auditorium on the Calvin College campus. That Auditorium seats a little over 1,100 for an event of this nature.
Thus confirmed for the debate are GOP candidates Gary Bauer, George W. Bush, Steve Forbes, Orrin Hatch, Alan Keyes and John McCain. Bush declined the initial invitation, but then accepted on Monday, January 3, 2000.
WOOD TV (the Grand Rapids NBC affiliate) will televise the debate live and MSNBC will pick up WOOD's feed for live, national distribution. Tim Russert will moderate with WOOD TVs Suzanne Geha and Rick Albin as panelists.
The idea for the debate came from local and state Republicans who saw the event as a natural for a city that is strongly Republican and for a state that is the first major industrial state to hold a GOP presidential primary (The presidential primary in Michigan is Feb. 22. Other powerhouse states such as California, New York and Ohio don't hold primaries until March 7.).
As Michigan GOP Chairwoman Betsy DeVos said in an Associated Press story: "This debate and Michigan's early primary date will make Michigan pivotal to winning the GOP nomination for president."
When state and local GOP officials approached Calvin College about use of its facilities in hosting such an event, school officials (while recognizing that hosting a GOP debate could be construed as partisan) felt that the educational opportunities such an event would provide were too good to pass up. They quickly accepted the offer.
"We are approaching this in a non-partisan way," said vice president for enrollment and external relations Tom McWhertor. "We see this as a terrific educational opportunity for our campus and an opportunity for public relations well beyond West Michigan. These debates have national significace and it's exciting for our campus to be part of this national dialogue. I also should note that we reached out to the local Democrats and offered our services and facilities to them should they be interested in holding a candidate debate in West Michigan."
McWhertor notes that in some ways accepting the GOP offer was the easy part. Now that the debate is official it's time for some serious planning and preparation to begin.
A Calvin team is working on everything from parking logistics to stage set-up to a media center on campus. The state and local GOP folks are busy setting up such things as debate format, motorcades and more. And WOOD TV people are starting the work of planning the broadcast. Each team realizes that January 10, 2000 is approaching quickly!
NOTE: Tickets for the debate have been divided among the various organizing groups. It is not certain at this point how many tickets, if any, will be available on a walk-up basis in the days and weeks leading up to the debate. Any such decision is likely to be made in the new year. Please watch this site and/or West Michigan media for further updates.