MBO-Following the New Hampshire primary, six Republican candidates will attend Thursday night’s debate in Myrtle Beach, state party officials said today.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, former Massachussetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee have all accepted their invitations, said Rob Godfrey, spokesman for the state Republican Party.

“The stakes couldn’t be higher this election, and we couldn’t be more excited to extend a warm South Carolina welcome to six White House hopefuls who are seeking the Republican nomination,” said Katon Dawson, chairman of the state GOP.

To be invited, candidates must have placed in the top 5 positions in the New Hampshire poll — McCain, Romney, Huckabee, Giuliani and Paul — or be polling at least 5 percent nationally, such as Thompson.

Several of the candidates already have early-state wins under their belts heading into Thursday’s debate, leaving the competition wide open. Huckabee won the Iowa caucus, Romney won a primary in Wyoming and McCain won in New Hampshire. Giuliani is campaigning on a national strategy that relies on his wide name-recognition, while Thompson is staking his campaign on Southern conservatives and Paul has an ardent base of supporters and very succesful fundraising.

Meanwhile, Thompson has several Horry County stops scheduled today on his bus tour across the state. Other candidates have planned events Thursday.

The debate will be broadcast live at 9 p.m. by FOX News from the Myrtle Beach Convention Center. Brit Hume, the channel’s Washington managing editor, will moderate the debate. Anchor Chris Wallace and White House correspondent Wendell Goler will ask questions.

Posted by JohnKonop on Thursday, January 10th, 2008 at 3:31 pm | under Uncategorized | |RSS 2.0 feed | Comments and pings closed. |