6th District Race: Some GOP Candidates Excluded From Debates

By Craig Johnson

ROSWELL, GA -- Three debates sponsored by the 6th Congressional District GOP is drawing criticism from some Republican candidates who feel they will be excluded.

While 11 Republicans are in the race, the series of forums, which begin Sunday, will invite only five of them to debate each other -- something that isn't sitting well with the others.

"In their infinite wisdom, they've decided that five of the 11 candidates should be in those debates," Republican candidate and Roswell businessman Kurt Wilson says in an online ad. "What's interesting is they're saying that the debates are going to be determined by who's leading in the polls. But they won't tell you what polls, they won't tell you when the polls are determined ... this is outrageous."

Wilson, along with candidates Keith Grawert and Amy Kremer, released a statement Thursday, saying that whittling the debate down to only five candidates was unfair to the Republican field that's "campaigned tirelessly in a short period of time."

"Since this is a special election, there is no primary cycle to narrow the field of candidates from 11," the candidates said in a statement. "Therefore, the GOP's failure to include each qualified candidate robs voters of the chance to make a properly informed decision and works to further discredit the GOP in a time when the Republican Party already faces much backlash and discontent from both voters and members of the party itself."

On the Facebook event page for the upcoming March 26 debate, the 6th District GOP said the top five Republican candidates will be chosen "by the average of the then-most recent polls prior to the event."

"Only publicly documented, credible polls will be considered as part of the average," the organization added.

In a survey conducted last week, conservative-leaning zpolitics/Clout Research found Karen Handel, Bob Gray, Judson Hill, Dan Moody and David Abroms, respectively, were the top five Republicans garnering support from voters.

The first debate will be Sunday, March 26 at 6 p.m. at Indian Hills Country Club in Marietta.

The second debate, which will be a job interview format, will be held at 4 p.m. April 2 at 111 Perimeter Center West in Dunwoody. The final debate, a roundtable style event, is set for 6 p.m. April 9 at The Metropolitan Club at 5895 Windward Parkway in Alpharetta.

Admission is free and open to everyone "interested in hearing our leading candidates' positions on the issues," the 6th District GOP said.

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