Jindal campaign wants Iowa, N.H. polling used to determine debate eligibility

CEDAR RAPIDS - It worked for Carly Fiorina, so Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is making a push to get into the main event the next time Republican presidential hopefuls debate.

Fiorina was so impressive in the first 'undercard” debate that she was able to convince the organizers of the second Republican presidential candidate debate to join the top 10 candidates at what pundits called the 'big kids' table.”

Jindal's top campaign staffers are taking a different tack after their candidate was left out of the main event for both the CNN and Fox News debates. They're calling for the Republican National Committee and CNBC, the host of the Oct. 28 meeting of the candidates to change the criteria to rely on polling in Iowa and New Hampshire where voters will first cast ballots to determine the party's nominee.

On a conference call with reporters Tuesday, Jindal senior strategist Curt Anderson said relying on national primaries 'is predictive of nothing except name ID.”

'The basic thing is we don't have a national primary so there is zero logic for the RNC and networks to use national polls,” Anderson said. He speculated that if New England Patriots' quarterback Tom Brady entered the race, he would have high enough name ID to make the cut for the CNBC debate.

In the past 50 years, he said, every Republican nominee for president has finished in first place in either Iowa or New Hampshire. Suggesting it might be different this year 'would be a theory not supported by historical fact,” Anderson said.

'The only way to measure candidate success is to measure how the candidates are doing in the places where voters will be voting.” Iowa has the first-in-the-nation caucuses and New Hampshire follows eight days later with the first primary.

'If you don't do well in Iowa and follow that up by not doing well in New Hampshire, you close your doors,” he said.

The RNC rejected the suggestion by Jindal campaign manager Timmy Teepell that the criteria give the appearance the party and CNBC are trying to 'pick who will win and who will lose.”

It's not the party that sets the criteria for the debates, said RNC spokesman Fred Brown.

'While the networks are responsible for setting the criteria for the debates, we have a historic number of qualified candidates seeking our nomination and have taken unprecedented steps to ensure that their voices are heard,” he said.

According to CNBC, a candidate must average at least 2.5 percent in national polling to qualify for its debate. Although Jindal is at 4 percent in the RealClearPlitics.com Iowa poll average, he is at 0.6 percent nationally. That would qualify him for the 'undercard” debate.

The criteria ignores the fact that in previous campaign, Rudy Giuliani, Herman Cain, Rick Perry and Fred Thompson led national polls at one point. None placed first in either Iowa or New Hampshire.

'It's an open and shut case,” Anderson said, 'and we've had nobody, no serious person from the RNC or CNBC or Fox or CNN make any kind of an argument on that.”

Jindal has been concentrating his efforts in Iowa and although relatively low in the polls, polls have shown he has good favorability ratings from likely caucusgoers.

However, being included in the main debate events is critical, Anderson said.

Debates 'give the candidates the opportunity to showcase depth or lack thereof,” he said. 'The crazy thing is that the debates have been very bad for Donald Trump. The longer he stays on the stage he loses depth or shows he has a lack of depth.”

Jindal has meet-and-greet events Wednesday at noon at Ross' 24-hour Restaurant in Bettendorf and 6 p.m. at the home of John and Beth Gallagher in Dyersville. Thursday, he will meet with the Linn County Republican Eagles in Cedar Rapids.