O'Malley Asks All Dem Candidates to Commit to 5 More Debates

[askew]

O'Malley's campaign manager sent a letter to all the Dem candidates' campaign managers asking them to call for 5 more debates.

From NYT:

The manager of former Gov. Martin O’Malley’s presidential campaign is urging other Democratic campaign managers to agree to five additional debates in the early states.

Dave Hamrick, who is managing Mr. O’Malley’s campaign, sent the letter to the campaign managers on Sunday, asking that they would also ask the Democratic National Committee to drop their clause sanctioning the debates.

“By limiting the number of debates Democrats hold this year, the D.N.C. is allowing the Republican presidential candidates — namely, Donald Trump — to dominate the national debate, and whoever our nominee is will emerge stronger as the result of a vigorous debate process,” Mr. Hamrick wrote.

“Specifically, we are asking for two additional weeknight, non-holiday peak season debates in Iowa and New Hampshire respectively, and one additional weeknight, non-holiday peak season debate in South Carolina and Nevada, respectively,” he said, asking for those to fall before Feb. 1, 2016.

In the letter, he noted that two of the party committee’s vice chairmans have called for an increase in debates, taking issue with the current process. But the party committee has said it won’t budge.

Mr. O’Malley, the former Maryland governor whose poll numbers have remained low, has been leading the call for more debates, with a singular focus.

A spokeswoman for Hillary Rodham Clinton declined to comment. A spokesman for Senator Bernie Sanders said that the candidate has already called for more debates.