State to host 4th debate

South Carolina will host an unprecedented fourth presidential debate within a year's span as Republican candidates gather in Myrtle Beach on Jan. 10, party officials announced Thursday.

And this debate, so close to the party's Jan. 19 primary, could be much more important than the rest.

"This time, the stakes are even higher," State GOP Chairman Katon Dawson said, a thought echoed by College of Charleston political science professor Bill Moore.

"I think there's been overkill on (earlier) debates," Moore said, "I think the Jan. 10 debate will be more significant than any of the others simply because of the proximity to the election itself."

State Republicans recently moved up the primary date from Feb. 2 to leapfrog Florida's Jan. 29 primary and maintain South Carolina's coveted status as first-in-the-South.

Like the May 15 debate in Columbia, the second Republican debate in the nation, the event at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center will be staged and televised nationally by Fox News.

While South Carolina's GOP primary is still first in the South, some of its early cachet could vanish if Michigan moves ahead with plans to set its primary on Jan. 15. That state's Republican-controlled Senate approved the move Wednesday, but its Democratic-controlled House has yet to go along with the change.

Dawson often has noted that for more than two decades the winner of the South Carolina GOP primary has gone on to win the nomination.

"We have a hard-earned reputation for being right when it comes to picking presidents, and we expect 2008 will be no different," he said.

South Carolina also could play host to another Democratic presidential debate early next year, this one sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus, although plans for that event are still in the talking stage.

Democrats debated at The Citadel on July 23 and at South Carolina State University in April.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Reach Robert Behre at 937-5771 or at rbehre@postandcourier.com.