Democratic National Committee drops Review-Journal poll
WASHINGTON — The Democratic National Committee dropped the Las Vegas Review-Journal poll from its list of polls used to winnow which presidential candidates qualify for its third and fourth presidential debates.
The DNC did not respond to multiple queries from the Review-Journal as to the reasons behind the decision.
But tucked into its announcement of its new criteria, Democrats noted, “The DNC and its media partners reserve the right to add a Nevada-specific poll sponsor to this list in the near future.”
The DNC also dropped the Reuters poll.
Sheldon and Dr. Miriam Adelson, whose family owns the Las Vegas Review-Journal, were the largest donors to President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.
The last Review-Journal poll was conducted in October 2016 and showed Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump in a statistical dead heat, with 45 percent of Silver State voters supporting Clinton and 44 percent supporting Trump.
When Nevadans went to the ballot box, Clinton ended up with 47.9 percent of the vote — which delivered all six electoral college votes — and Trump garnered 45.5 percent.
The DNC released new criteria for the third and fourth debates, which will be held in September and October. It is not clear if the third debate will span one evening, Sept. 12, or be extended to accommodate other candidates on Sept. 13.
The first DNC debate will be held on June 26 and June 27 in Miami to accommodate as many as 20 candidates. The second debate will be held in Detroit on July 30 and 31. There will be no DNC debate in August.
Democratic hopefuls will have to have at least 2 percent support in four polls — which could be national or from Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and/or South Carolina among a long list of polls — to qualify for these debates, the location of which has not been disclosed.
In addition, qualifying candidates will have to have received donations from 130,000 unique donors.
Geoffrey Skelley, elections analyst for FiveThirtyEight, tweeted that it was curious that the DNC removed Reuters and the Review-Journal: “Former isn’t shocking because its polls with Ipsos have sparked many sample questions. Latter is weird because it hasn’t released a single NV poll.”
Indeed, Review-Journal executive editor Glenn Cook said, “The Review-Journal does not plan on polling for the Nevada Democratic caucus.”
The Associated Press, ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Des Moines Register, Fox News, Monmouth University, NBC News, New York Times, National Public Radio (NPR), Quinnipiac University, University of New Hampshire, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Washington Post and Winthrop University are still on the DNC list of qualifying polls.
Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7391. Follow @DebraJSaunders on Twitter.
Polls still on DNC list of qualifying polls.
Associated Press, ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Des Moines Register, Fox News, Monmouth University, NBC News, New York Times, National Public Radio (NPR), Quinnipiac University, University of New Hampshire, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Washington Post, and Winthrop University.
