Iowa's Christian Conservatives Gather Tonight to Hear GOP Candidates

About a thousand Iowa Christian conservatives are expected to attend tonight's Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition fall banquet in Des Moines, where they will hear from six of the GOP presidential candidates.

Come back to Patch at 6:30 tonight to catch the live blog of all the speakers.

Scheduled to attend are: Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum.

Skipping Iowa is Mitt Romney.

Walk-in registrations will be accepted; cost is $55.

If you don't want to pay to listen to the speeches, you can watch them from home live on C-SPAN from 6 to 9 p.m.

Candidates will each be asked two questions by the Faith and Freedom Coalition and two questions from the Iowa Energy Forum, an oil industry trade group.

Tonight's lineup:

4:30 – 6 p.m.: Registration, meet-and-greet, buffet dinner

6 p.m.: C-SPAN begins live coverage

6:33 – 6:45 p.m.: Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee

6:45 – 7:07: Herman Cain

7:07 – 7:29: Michele Bachmann

7:29 – 7:51: Rick Perry

7:51 – 8:13: Newt Gingrich

8:13 – 8:35: Ron Paul

8:35 – 8:57: Rick Santorum

More GOP debates set

The jockeying for an early spot in the GOP nominating process has, as all Iowans must know at this point, moved the state's caucuses up from February to Jan. 3.
The shifting election schedule has also meant some changes for the dates candidate debates will be held.

This week the Des Moines Register announced its GOP presidential debate will be Dec. 19. Judy Woodruff of PBS Newshour will moderate the debate, which will be 3 to 4:30 p.m. at Iowa Public Television, 6450 Corporate Drive, Johnston.

December will see two other GOP candidate debates in Iowa. The ABC News/Republican Party of Iowa debate is Dec. 10 in Des Moines, and the Fox News/Republican Party of Iowa debate is Dec. 15 in Sioux City.