MSNBC.com Notes O'Malley Slamming Dubious Legality of Democrat Debate Ground Rules. [View all]

While Chris Matthews's Hardball program thus far has failed to cover Democratic presidential candidate Martin O'Malley's critiques of the DNC's debate schedule and its ground rules, the Lean Forward network's website today has a front page article, "Martin O’Malley raises legal questions with Democratic debate plan" addressing the controversy.

Network scribe Alex Seitz-Wald reports (emphases quoted mine):

In an escalation of Martin O’Malley’s war on the Democratic National Committee over the party’s primary debate process, an attorney for his presidential campaign is saying the DNC’s plan may run afoul of federal election rules.

In a memo shared with msnbc, O’Malley attorney Joe Sandler, who formerly served as the DNC’s general counsel, calls the DNC’s debate plan “entirely unprecedented” and “legally problematic.”

[...]

Of particular concern to O’Malley is the DNC’s exclusivity requirement, which would punish candidates and debate sponsors who participate in unsanctioned debates by barring them from participating in remaining official events. The DNC’s goal was to limit the unwieldy sprawl of the last Democratic primary in 2008, when the number of debates mushroomed to about two dozen.

Of particular concern to O’Malley is the DNC’s exclusivity requirement, which would punish candidates and debate sponsors who participate in unsanctioned debates by barring them from participating in remaining official events. The DNC’s goal was to limit the unwieldy sprawl of the last Democratic primary in 2008, when the number of debates mushroomed to about two dozen.

But O’Malley’s attorney says that exclusivity clause is “legally unenforceable.”

“Under Federal Election Commission rules, the format and structure of each debate must be controlled exclusively by the debate sponsor, not by any party or candidate committee,” Sandler wrote in the memo. >>>

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/ken-shepherd/2015/08/11/msnbccom-notes-omalley-slamming-dubious-legality-democrat-debate

'Sorry' if this is dupe; just got here, but too damn good to NOT be waved around!!!