Democratic Presidential Candidates Agree to CNN, Los Angeles Times Debate

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 20, 2004 – All four of the remaining candidates seeking the Democratic Party nomination for president have agreed to participate in a debate sponsored by CNN and the Los Angeles Times. The debate will be held just a few days prior to “Super Tuesday” on Thursday, Feb. 26, at 9 p.m. (ET) in Bovard Auditorium on the University of Southern California campus.

The 90-minute debate will be moderated by CNN’s Larry King, who will be joined by an interview panel that includes The Times’ national political correspondent and columnist Ron Brownstein and editorial page editor Janet Clayton. The candidates participating will be Sen. John Edwards, Sen. John Kerry, Rep. Dennis Kucinich and the Rev. Al Sharpton.

The debate precedes “Super Tuesday” on March 2 when nine states, including California, New York, Massachusetts and Ohio, hold their primaries. The debate will be broadcast live nationwide on CNN/U.S., CNN International and CNN en Español.

CNN’s political programming will originate out of Los Angeles most of the week. The CNN Election Express bus will be in Los Angeles from Tuesday, Feb. 24, to Thursday, Feb. 26, stopping at various campaign hotspots before arriving at the debate site. Both Judy Woodruff’s Inside Politics and Crossfire will air live from the bus through those dates.

The Los Angeles Times, a Tribune Publishing company, is the largest metropolitan daily newspaper in the country and the winner of 30 Pulitzer Prizes. The Times publishes five daily regional editions covering the Los Angeles metropolitan area, Orange and Ventura counties, the San Fernando Valley, and an Inland Empire edition covering Riverside and San Bernardino counties, as well as a national edition. Additional information about The Times is available at www.latimes.com/mediacenter.

CNN, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is one of the world’s most respected and trusted sources for news and information. Its reach extends to 15 cable and satellite television networks; two private place-based networks; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; eight Web sites, including CNN.com, the first major news and information Web site; and CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service.