GOP presidential debates should be fair and open, Branstad says

DES MOINES - Gov. Terry Branstad said Monday he plans to push national GOP leaders to ensure fair and equal access to the party's large field of candidates in the upcoming debates and to keep Iowa and New Hampshire at the front of the nominating process.

Branstad told reporters at his weekly news conference that he supported the decision by Republican Party of Iowa Central Committee members last week to call off the party's planned Aug. 8 straw poll, given there was little indication that GOP candidates would participate in the Boone event.

With party officials and TV networks at the national level organizing candidate debates that will influence Iowa Republicans heading into next February's first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses, Branstad said he wants to make sure all the candidates have an opportunity to participate in the events - even it means offering more than one panel to accommodate everyone.

'We need to make sure that the process is open and it is fair,” said Branstad, who planned to contact Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and Fox News President Roger Ailes urging them to reconsider proposed rules for GOP presidential debates that would favor candidates based upon polling data.

Traditionally, Iowa's leadoff caucuses have winnowed the field of candidates moving forward, but this year Branstad said the strong, crowded GOP field could mean than more than just the top three Iowa finishers advance.

'There are a lot more candidates and a strong field of candidates,” Branstad told reporters, 'better than I have ever seen before,” so it could be that more than the strongest three performers will be able to keep competing for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination deeper into the selection process.

Branstad said this year's straw poll demise might curb some of the criticism, but probably won't stop the complaints aimed at the leadoff position that Iowa and New Hampshire hold in the two major political parties' presidential selection process.

'There has always been the naysayers and the people who are jealous that Iowa is first,” Branstad said.

'Our interest has been to have the first real test of candidates facing real voters be the Iowa precinct caucuses followed by the New Hampshire primary,” he added. 'We want to keep it that way.”