Organizers hope that a smaller, more controlled audience will prevent inappropriate outbursts.
Dartmouth to control debate crowd
By REID J. EPSTEIN
At the last three GOP presidential debates, the crowd has cheered for executions, screamed out that a man without health insurance should be left to die and booed a gay soldier.
Dartmouth is trying to keep Tuesday night's Washington Post/Bloomberg debate from continuing that pattern.
In an editorial Friday, the student newspaper warned debate spectators about the "embarrassing incidents of audience misbehavior" at the last three debates and urged those attending to keep quiet while the TV lights are on.
"It would be an enormous black eye for the college and a damning indictment of our maturity and political culture if Dartmouth's debate were to be characterized by another inappropriate outburst, no matter its ideological origin," the paper wrote.
Organizers are hoping that a smaller, more controlled audience will achieve that goal.
Of approximately 860 tickets, Dartmouth was allotted 40 percent, while the rest were distributed among Bloomberg, The Washington Post and the campaigns. The school distributed its tickets to students and local community members through a lottery after inviting faculty members and local dignitaries. They're nontransferable, college spokesman Justin Anderson said, which should stop uninvited troublemakers from getting into Spaulding Auditorium.
That's a contrast to the Orlando debate, where most of more than 5,000 people paid for their seats, according to Brian Hughes, a Republican Party of Florida spokesman. At the Tampa debate the week before, the Tea Party Express distributed the 1,200 tickets through local tea party organizations.
As at those debates, the crowd in Hanover on Tuesday will be asked to remain quiet during the event.
"It's a reminder that not only are the folks sitting in the hall watching a debate, they're also participating in a live television broadcast," Anderson said. "Much like any event like this, there is a procedure if crowd members seem to be intentionally disrupting whatever the event is."
Still, there's reason to be concerned. While conservative by Ivy League standards, Dartmouth has a long legacy of troublemaking. The campus was the model for the classic frat house movie "Animal House," and its unofficial mascot is Keggy the Keg, a anthropomorphic beer dispenser wearing the school green.
Outside the hall, a group calling itself the Strengthen Social Security Campaign is attempting to organize a flash mob at 6 p.m., at which "New Hampshire senior citizens are going to perform a routine to 'Stop in the Name of Love,' to protest entitlement cuts, according to the group's press release.
Organizers are hoping to keep whatever rowdiness occurs, including the flash mob, to a "visibility area" that's been arranged outside the hall for debate-related demonstrations, Anderson said.
"There will be campaign supporters and protestors protesting something, I'm sure," he said.
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