ARIZONA GETS A REPUBLICAN DEBATE

posted by Andrea Kelly

Arizona gets a debate.

That's the official word from Republican party officials this week.

The debate was promised after Gov. Jan Brewer agreed not to move the state's primary up to January 2012. The state will vote in the presidential preference election in February, which is still earlier than party officials want, but not so early that we jump ahead of other states.

Until this week, the promise was just that. Now we know CNN and the state Republican Party will co-host the event, and that it will air on the cable network at 6 p.m. Dec. 1. It's not clear yet where the debate will be, but there's speculation it will be somewhere in the Phoenix metropolitan area.