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 Fourteen of the 17 candidates are to face off in Manchester, N.H.,
for the Voters Issues Forum, a two-hour event at Saint Anselm
College in which each candidate will be asked questions by a
moderator based on a random draw.
Most of the leaders in the Republican field are to participate,
including Jeb Bush, Scott Walker and Marco Rubio, but not poll
leader Trump, who declared he would not attend in outrage over an
editorial published by the Union Leader, the Manchester newspaper
that is one of the sponsors of the event.
Others not planning to attend are former Arkansas Governor Mike
Huckabee and former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore, who just jumped
into the race last week.
The event will serve as a way for each candidate to see how they do
against each other ahead of the first official Republican debate of
the 2016 season, on Thursday night in Cleveland.
 The first debate has been controversial because under rules set up
by the sponsor, Fox News, and backed by the Republican National
Committee, only the top 10 candidates based on an average of recent
national polls will be allowed on stage at the 9 p.m. event.
The remaining seven will face off earlier in the day, at 5 p.m., a
time when far fewer viewers will be tuning in.
Sparks are already flying in anticipation of that event. Kentucky
Senator Rand Paul, expected to be one of the top 10, told CNN on
Friday that Trump's rise to the top of the polls reflected a "a
temporary sort of loss of sanity, but we're going to come back to
our senses and look for someone serious to lead the country at some
point."
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South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, not in the top 10, said he
would be participating in what he called the "happy hour debate."
"You've got the Donald Trump debate. Everybody's going to be, 'How
will he perform? What will he say?' Well, when I'm in the first
debate, which is the 'happy hour debate,' at five o'clock, start
drinking. By nine o'clock, Donald may make sense to you, if you
drink enough," he told NBC News.
(Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Andrew Hay)
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