Montana's top Democrats send scathing letter to DNC on new rules of debate

Montana Democrats sent a scathing letter to National Democratic Committee chairman Tom Perez on Friday in response to the DNC's decision to change its rules for qualifying debates so as to prevent Governor Steve Bullock, presidential candidate of 2020, among the participants.

In the letter, which was obtained by CBS News, DNC members Mary Sexton, Jorge Quintana and Jean Dahlman said that Montana's governor Bullock "deserves an opportunity to move on to the debate." . Bryce Bennett, who resigned from the DNC on May 29 to run for office in any state, also signed the letter.

"We know that many consider that we are a country overflown or a little more than an ideal vacation spot, but we know that we have offered innumerable invaluable contributions to the Democratic Party and to our country as a whole ", says the letter. "The recent implementation of additional qualification rules for the June debates in Miami could deprive the Democratic party a voice representing rural America. "

Sexton, Quintana and Dahlman are the only three members of the DNC from Montana.

The new rule of debate, announced Thursday, disqualifies a Washington Post / ABC poll previously included in the criteria for qualifying the debate. According to the Bullock campaign, he is the only candidate who will be affected by the change.

The DNC said it excluded the Washington Post / ABC poll because it opposed the way pollsters asked an open question instead of listing the names of Democratic candidates. In order to participate in the Democratic debate later this month, candidates must have registered support of at least 1% in three approved polls or received donations from 65,000 people, including at least 200 people in 20 states. different.

A Washington Post spokesman told CBS News: "In such a large and precocious area, we have sought to determine which candidates would be democratically elected voters, if any." An open question was ideal for this. "

The Bullock campaign says the late entry of the governor into the race helps his national poll down and that he has been waiting to get into the race "until he has exceeded the Medicaid expansion for nearly 100,000 Montanais ".

"Until yesterday, there were three qualified nationally [polls] Bullock said Friday in an interview with WBUR, a chain of the Boston NPR.

"If I had to choose between campaigning for 100,000 donors and getting health care for 100,000 people, it's the easiest decision I can make."

DNC spokesperson Xochitl Hinojosa told CBS News: "The DNC has always been transparent and announced in December that debates would start in June, and we have informed the Bullock campaign several times since March that this survey would not count was open and not a matter of traditional horse racing. "