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GOP debate

University of Colorado venue for Oct. 28 event should be open to CU students

The next Republican presidential debate is scheduled for Oct. 28. It will be held in Boulder in the Coors Event Center on the campus of the University of Colorado. And with that one would think that a number of CU students might be eager to attend.

Indeed, they may well want to be there. The Republican National Committee, however, does not seem interested in having students – or just about anyone else – in the audience for the debate. That is a mistake on the GOP’s part, and it is mystifying that the university is putting up with it.

As the Herald reported Saturday, the RNC is distributing 1,000 tickets to the debate, but only 100 are available for students. To put that in perspective, CU Boulder has more than 30,000 students and the Coors Event Center can hold 11,000.

That fits a pattern and is not just aimed at keeping students away. The first GOP presidential debate was held in the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, and was attended by a fraction of the more than 20,000 people that arena can hold. The same was true at the second debate where only 300 people were in the audience at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif.

The explanation is simple. As an RNC spokesman told the Herald, “These debates are designed for a television audience and the millions of people who will tune in.”

The live audience is a prop. The producers need only enough people for a crowd shot.

Fine. The debates are made-for-TV events and as much spectacle as anything.

Keeping it small in the Reagan Library made sense. That is hallowed ground for Republicans and is not a stadium.

The reverse was likely a consideration in Cleveland. Quicken Loans Arena is home court for the Cleveland Cavaliers of the NBA. Even if impeccably mannered, a crowd that size in that kind of venue can be noisy.

CU should be different. Not only should the GOP relish a chance to include younger voters, it is playing into its critics’ narrative by excluding them.

Why did CU go along with that? Unlike other debate venues, the university is owned by the people of Colorado. Why the RNC wants to exclude students is unclear, but the university should not be helping. It should be demanding more tickets.



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