CNN releases criteria for October 18th GOP debate in Las Vegas

No rest for the weary when it comes to GOP primary debates. We’re moving from a 3-debate month of September to just a 2-debate month of October. Last night we witnessed the Bloomberg GOP debate from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and, in a mere 6 days from today, we’ll be watching another GOP debate from Las Vegas, Nevada.

The October 18th debate is sponsored by CNN and the Western Republican Leadership Conference.

Air Time: Tuesday, October 18th at 8pm ET on CNN from the Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas, Nevada

Participants: Bachmann, Cain, Gingrich, Santorum, Paul, Perry, Romney, Huntsman

Report from CNN:

Washington (CNN) – CNN has established objective criteria – modeled after criteria the network used for the June 13th presidential debate in New Hampshire and the September 12th presidential debate in Florida – to determine who will receive invitations to participate in the October 18th “Western Republican Presidential Debate.”

Participants need to meet the threshold outlined below to receive an invitation to this debate:

A person must receive an average of at least 2.00 percent in at least three national polls released between September 1st and October 16th that were conducted by the following organization: ABC, AP, Bloomberg, CBS News/New York Times, CNN, FOX, Gallup, Los Angeles Times, Marist, McClatchy, NBC, Newsweek, Pew, Quinnipiac, Reuters, USA Today and Time.

CNN is partnering with the Western Republican Leadership Conference to present the October 18th “Western Republican Presidential Debate,” live from Las Vegas at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. Follow all the issues and campaign news leading up to the debate on http://www.cnnpolitics.com and @cnnpolitics on Twitter.

There is a candidate in danger of losing his invite and his name is Jon Huntsman as MediaIte reports:

Jon Huntsman needs to hit 2 percent nationally in a poll in the next 20 days or he will be kicked off CNN’s debate guest list, The New York Times reports.

CNN says that candidates must average 2 percent or more in three individual polls published after September 1st in order to be eligible to participate in their October 18th debate being held at The Venetian Resort in Las Vegas.

Huntsman has managed to garner 2 percent in two polls, but has been mired at 1 percent in all others.

Huntsman has until the day of the debate on October 18th to produce another poll showing him garnering 2% of the vote which will get his foot in the door. My guess is he might make the cut one more time around and still be included. On the other hand, you have to believe the 7 other candidates are hoping to whittle the field so they all can scoop up a few more minutes of time.

Update

Huntsman will qualify for the debate, his spot is confirmed. It will be the traditional 8-candidate lineup for Las Vegas.