Report: Republican campaigns want RNC out of the debate process

On Sunday, representatives from several Republican presidential campaigns plan to meet in Washington, D.C., for a summit on how to change the way GOP debates are held and remove power from the Republican National Committee, multiple sources told Politico.

The meeting follows Wednesday night's highly criticized CNBC debate, deemed disorganized and unprofessional by many of the candidates, as well as RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. The RNC has taken a bigger role in the 2016 debate process, campaign sources said, but RNC leaders are not listening to the concerns of the candidates. The meeting — organized by the Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Bobby Jindal, and Lindsey Graham campaigns — will be a way for the campaigns to discuss a new way of structuring the debates, leaving the RNC and television networks out of the process. No one from the RNC is invited to this meeting, Politico reports.

Representatives for Carly Fiorina, Marco Rubio, Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul, and Rick Santorum are expected to attend, and the other campaigns will be contacted. Christian Ferry, Graham's campaign manager, told Politico "the campaigns have a number of concerns, and they have a right to talk about that amongst themselves," with the objective being to "find out what works best for us as a group." Issues brought up previously include unequal speaking time, the polling that is being used to decide who qualifies for the prime-time and undercard debates, and having opening and closing statements. Low-polling Graham has also suggested having two debates with seven or eight candidates at each one, picked at random.

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The next Republican debate will be hosted by Fox Business Network on Nov. 10, moderated by Maria Bartiromo and Neil Cavuto. Sources at the network told Politico they have not heard from the RNC or any individual campaigns regarding the debate format.