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Democrats converge on Charleston for July debate
By Dan McCue
Staff Writer
Haven’t caught presidential debate fever yet?
You’ll get your chance this summer when Charleston hosts a nationally televised debate among the Democratic candidates vying for the White House. The sparing session is scheduled for July 23 and will be broadcast live on CNN.
The debate, which is being cosponsored by the region’s newest major corporate citizen, Google, is the first such event being held in the port city in modern memory. It will also be the first debate to be hosted on Google’s YouTube.
On Tuesday, Columbia played host to a Fox News debate featuring the Republican candidates for president, and two weeks ago, the full Democratic field came together for their first-in-the-South debate in Orangeburg.
Although a venue has yet to be chosen for the event, political insiders said Tuesday morning, they believe the most likely location is the Galliard Municipal Auditorium.
What’s in store in terms of the potential economic impact of the event? A clue could be drawn from what transpired in Columbia earlier this week.
Columbia Mayor Robert D. Coble, a Democrat, said he didn’t expect that city’s debate to have a direct economic impact on par with a USC home football game—a number he pegged at between $6 million and $8 million—but nonetheless suggested it could come close.
The reason is that presidential debates don’t occur in a political vacuum, they’re always accompanied by a whole host of supporting and secondary events.
“Here in Columbia,” Coble said, “the hotels are full, the restaurants are doing well. But most importantly, this is an opportunity to reintroduce the city to many people who may not have been here since the last presidential contest four years ago.”
The announcement of the debate was made jointly Wednesday by the S.C. Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee. In addition to the Charleston event, the national party also sanctioned five other debates prior to next year’s primaries.
Those debates will be in Des Moines, Iowa, Hanover, N.H., Philadelphia, Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
South Carolina’s Democratic primary is scheduled for Jan. 29.
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