Iowa Democratic leaders anticipate first primary debate.

By Aleksandra Vujicic
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Democratic front-runners and stragglers, each seeking their party’s presidential nomination, will be placed on the same stage tonight for the first time this election cycle.

A number of Democratic leaders across the state are all hoping the first Democratic debate of the 2016 race is issue-oriented and stays away from personal attacks while posing an opportunity for the underdogs to emerge as viable competitors.

“The thing that I like most about the five candidates is they’re not trying to harpoon one another, they’re focused on the issues,” said Walt Pregler, the chairman of the Dubuque County Democratic Central Committee.

CNN and Facebook will host the debate in Las Vegas, which will be broadcasted live at 7:30 p.m.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the highest polling candidate, will be center stage, according to the podium order released by CNN Monday.

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She will be flanked by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, former Gov. Martin O’Malley, former Virginia Sen. Jim Web, and former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee.

If Vice President Joe Biden decides to participate as well, a podium will be prepared for him. The debate qualifications allow Biden to participate even though he has not announced a bid for the presidency.

As far as debate dynamics go, Tom Henderson the chairman of the Polk County Democratic Central Committee, said frontrunners Clinton and Sanders will probably end up being the biggest targets of the debate. But the setting will also create an opportunity for a lower tier candidate to emerge as a potential challenger to the other two.

“I think you’ll see that Martin O’Malley will have a chance to emerge as a candidate as well,” Henderson said.

Most Democratic leaders agreed personal attacks should be left out of the debate rhetoric to instead focus on domestic and foreign issues, but Henderson said there’s a fine line to cross in differentiating between what’s personal and what’s a public issue; namely, Clinton’s use of personal emails during her tenure as secretary of State and the ongoing Benghazi investigations.

“I don’t consider those to be necessarily personal attacks, but nonetheless they are personal to her,” Henderson said.

And if the candidates were to focus on each other’s weaknesses, they might be in store for worse consequences following the debate, Pregler noted.

“They would suffer the same fate Scott Walker is experiencing,” Pregler said.

Among the issues, Iowa Democrats say the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade, which Clinton has recently voiced her opposition to (Sanders and O’Malley have also opposed the deal), will probably be brought up along with other foreign-policy topics, including the Iran nuclear deal.

But as far as domestic talking points go, the candidates will all give their vision for how middle-class families can earn a livable wage and how to make college more affordable. 

“It will be a chance for voters to do a comparison as to how they convey their positions on the issues, and I think that’s the key,” Henderson said.