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They’re ready to rumble!
Bouncers will be waiting in the wings in case things get out of control tomorrow night when seven gubernatorial candidates take to the stage for a live, televised debate that has the potential to devolve into a three-ring circus.
It falls to News 12 Long Island veteran reporter and debate moderator Doug Geed to keep a tight rein when Democrat Andrew Cuomo; GOP candidate and Tea Party favorite Carl Paladino; former madam Kristin Davis; radical City Councilman Charles Barron; and three fringe candidates take to the stage, said producer Michelle Murphy.
But if the debate starts to turn into an episode of “Jersey Shore,” producers will call on security to intervene, Murphy said.
“We are going with the expectation that [the debaters] will be gentlemen and ladies,” she stressed. “But we don’t have any control [over them], so we are prepared for anything.”
Producers have also prepped moderators to step in if the verbal sparring gets too nasty.
“We’ve decided it has to be severe, a severe personal attack, where our moderators at their discretion could intervene,” said Murphy. “Obviously, we can’t prepare or control what any of these people are going to say, but we would like to keep them to the issues.”
The candidates will be seated across a wide stage, with a small table for writing placed between each of them.
Aside from Cuomo and Paladino, and Davis on the Anti-Prohibition Party and Barron from the all-black Freedom Party, participants include Jimmy McMillan from the Rent is 2 Damn High Party, Warren Redlich from the Libertarian Party, and Howie Hawkins, of the Green Party.
The crowded debate, a joint production by News 12, Newsday and Hofstra University, has producers working overtime to make sure candidates know the rules.
Each candidate will get a walk-through of the debate stage beforehand, and all of them got letters outlining in detail the format for time limits and the rules for rebuttals.
Time limits will be strictly enforced, said Murphy, and a light system will alert a candidate if they’re going to be cut off.
Bring it on!
When: 7 p.m. tomorrow
Where: Hofstra University, Hempstead, LI
Moderators: Doug Geed, News 12; Joye Brown, Newsday; Brian Conybeare, News 12
Candidates:
* Jimmy McMillan (Rent is 2 Damn High Party)
* Andrew Cuomo (Democratic/Independence/and Working Families Parties)
* Charles Barron (Freedom Party)
* Kristin Davis (Anti-Prohibition Party)
* Howie Hawkins (Green Party)
* Carl Paladino (Republican/Conserv-ative/Taxpayers Parties)
* Warren Redlich (Libertarian Party)