In GOP debate, a chance to stand out

WASHINGTON -- When all 10 Republican presidential candidates gather in California tonight for the first GOP debate, some of the loudest voices are likely to be of those contenders polling in the back of the pack.

Just as little-known former senator Mike Gravel of Alaska drew chuckles at last week's Democratic candidates' debate by saying of his competitors on the stage, "Some of these people frighten me," GOP candidates such as Representatives Ron Paul , Duncan Hunter, and Tom Tancredo will be looking to make a big splash.

Spokespeople for the news organizations sponsoring the debates, who approved participation by all 10 declared candidates for the GOP's first national debate tonight, said they wanted to be as inclusive as possible in selecting the debate participants. But with just 90 minutes to share among candidates and questioners, each contender will have little time to make his case to GOP primary voters and little opportunity to distinguish himself from other contenders.

Some analysts suggest that while the least-known contenders may find it easy to draw attention with fierce advocacy of a single issue or a provocative comment, they also distract from the candidates most voters are considering seriously.

"These folks are wild cards, no question about it. It clearly takes up space" to host so many candidates, said Dean Spiliotes , director of research at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College in Manchester. "It's a drawback in terms of getting any significant dialogue from any of the candidates."

The lower-tier candidates say, however, that they not only have a right to participate in the debate, but also have important issues to raise that the leading candidates might be reluctant to bring up.

Paul, a Texas lawmaker, is a fiery libertarian who is often at odds with his own party on civil liberties and the Iraq war, which he has opposed from the start. Hunter, a Vietnam War vet eran from California , is a leading House hawk, and Tancredo, a Colorado congressman, is a fervent supporter of putting up a fence to keep out illegal immigrants.

Paul said in an interview that he hopes to have the chance to challenge the leading candidates on the war, which he said true conservatives should oppose because it has forced the United States to get involved in nation-building.

"They might oppose [having others] in the debate, but not if we live in a country that's a democracy and allows people to participate," Paul said.

But as political analysts note, one person's valiant rogue candidate is another person's attention-seeking crank. In 2000, then-Texas governor George W. Bush and Senator John McCain of California staged a spirited race for the GOP nomination -- but voters eager to contrast the two leaders also had to sit through hours of radio talk-show host Alan Keyes and family-values crusader Gary Bauer, long-shot candidates who refused to leave the race long after others did.

Both Keyes and Bauer seemed to enjoy scoring points off the leading candidates, just as Gravel , the 76-year-old former senator who represented Alaska from 1969 to 1981, managed to tweak his Democratic competitors in last week's debate.

After dismissing the other seven candidates on the stage, he underscored his point by saying: "It's like going into the Senate. You know the first time you get there you're all excited -- 'My God, how did I ever get here?' And then, about six months later, you say, 'How the hell did the rest of them get here?' "

Tancredo said the candidates who are way behind in the polls -- such as Gravel and himself -- need the debates to let American voters know who they are and what kind of leaders they might make.

"Gravel, in his way, tried his best to do that," Tancredo said of his fellow struggling presidential hopeful.

"Unfortunately, I think he distinguished himself in a relatively unattractive way," Tancredo added.

Some trailing candidates use the debates to lay the groundwork for future work in politics and the lecture circuit, political consultants said. Commentator Patrick Buchanan enhanced his fame and lecture fees with three presidential runs, each followed by a return to his role as a television pundit.

During his two races for the GOP nomination, however, Buchanan used his platform to challenge his party's free-trade positions, arguing on behalf of working-class voters.

"You need those individuals to put forth those issues and ideas that are a little bit out of the mainstream, to help foster good dialogue," said Lamelle McMorris , a Democratic political consultant who is supporting Senator Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois, for the nomination.

Indeed, some issues trumpeted by long-shot candidates were adopted by the eventual nominees. Ross Perot, the 1992 Reform Party presidential candidate, nonetheless managed to persuade voters -- and Democratic nominee Bill Clinton -- to pay attention to the staid topic of the federal debt. The Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson , both onetime Democratic hopefuls, energized African-American voters and kept issues relating to black American s on the radar screen.

Tancredo intends to push his Republican competitors on the issue of immigration, while Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, a Democratic candidate from Ohio, has needled his opponents relentlessly on the Iraq war, accusing them of not fighting hard enough to get the nation out of it.

Kucinich insists he is not simply trying to move the dialogue -- "I'm not in this to have an impact on other candidates. I'm in this to win," he said -- and believes he substantially improved his image at last Thursday's Democratic debate in South Carolina.

"Clearly, it takes time away from the front-runners" to include lesser- known candidates in the debates, said Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center. But "it is the only exposure these second-tier candidates have to the public."

The debate airs on MBNBC at 8 p.m.