Paul has demonstrated increased support in key early-primary state polling, including the state of New Hampshire where the debate will be held (!).
According to a press release from the campaign of Presidential candidate Ron Paul, Fox News* – scheduled to hold a nationally televised debate in New Hampshire on January 6 – may have decided to exclude the surging candidate from their forum. So far Fox has announced invitations to Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Fred Thompson, John McCain and Mitt Romney. New Hampshire’s primary is scheduled for two days after the debate takes place.
It is yet unclear whether this is simply an oversight on the part of Fox, however if it is indeed a deliberate move it is left to wonder what justifications the network used in coming to their decision to dismiss Paul. While Paul has yet to crack double digits in national polling, a number of his campaign successes demonstrating support for the candidate suggest other metrics need to be taken into account.
To begin, according to Paul’s website, the campaign has received more than $18.8 million in contributions this quarter, over $7 million more than Giuliani, the top fund raiser during the previous quarter, managed during that period. Further, with a fund raising event scheduled to coincide with New Years Eve, the Paul campaign is expected to finish the quarter with over $20 million in contributions, a sum that would almost assuredly make him the victor in the race to raise the most fourth quarter funds.
Further, Paul has demonstrated increased support in key early-primary state polling, including the state of New Hampshire where the debate will be held. In the most recent Rasmussen poll of likely Republican voters in New Hampshire, Paul placed ahead of Thompson and in a statistical tie with Huckabee and Giuliani, all of whom have been invited to participate in the debate.
In Iowa, where voters will head to the polls in less than one week, Paul currently registers 10% of likely Republican caucus goers, again putting him ahead of Thompson and in a statistical tie with Giuliani and McCain.
*Roger Eugene Ailes (born May 15, 1940) is the president of Fox News Channel and chairman of the Fox Television Stations Group. He was a media consultant for Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush, as well as for presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani’s first mayoral campaign in 1989.