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Flint, already sure to stay in the prime-time national news spotlight, is the setting for a March 6 debate between the two Democrats battling for their party's presidential nomination.
Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton go on stage there two days before their party elects 152 convention delegates in a statewide primary here, the Democratic National Committee announced Wednesday afternoon.
The event site and TV network haven't yet been determined. A leading possibility is the University of Michigan-Flint. where Whiting Auditorium has 2,043 seats -- the city's largest such space.
Kettering University's biggest venue is a 700-seat theater. Mott Community College, where the cramped Event Center has just 200 seats, is out.
"We will continue to work closely with both campaigns as we finalize the remaining details," says national committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida congresswoman.
The party's fifth debate since October, and the first without dropout candidate Martin O'Malley, is Thursday night at the University of New Hampshire. Another is next Thursday in Wisconsin. followed by Michigan's slightly more than three weeks later.
Kathleen Gray sketches this background at the Detroit Free Press:
Clinton, former secretary of state and first lady, called for a debate in Flint on Saturday to draw attention to the water crisis facing the city.
Hillary for America Campaign Chairman John Podesta called the crisis of high levels of lead being found in residents' tap water "unconscionable" and that government must address it appropriately.
"It’s been going on for years, as the people of Flint repeatedly asked for help and were ignored by state government," Podesta said. "As Hillary has said, this would not have happened in a wealthy community."
Clinton has been talking about the Flint water issue on the campaign trail and in debates, saying that such a travesty probably wouldn’t have happened in an affluent community.
Sanders has said he thinks Gov. Rick Snyder should resign.
