Candy Crowley is 1st female moderator of presidential debate since ’92

Candy Crowley, CNN’s chief political correspondent and anchor of “State of the Union With Candy Crowley,” will be the first female moderator of a U.S. presidential debate since 1992.

The Commission on Presidential Debates announced the names of the moderators of this year’s three presidential debates and one vice-presidential debate. In addition to Crowley, Jim Lehrer of PBS’ “NewsHour” and Bob Schieffer of CBS’ “Face the Nation” will moderate the presidential debates and Martha Raddatz, senior foreign affairs correspondent for ABC News, will moderate the vice presidential debate.

The last woman to moderate the presidential debates was Carole Simpson of ABC News, who moderated the three-way debate among George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and H. Ross Perot.

Lehrer will moderate the first debate in Denver on Oct. 3. Crowley will moderate the second debate on Oct. 16 in Hempstead, N.Y. Schieffer will moderate the third debate on Oct. 22 in Boca Raton, Fla. The vice presidential debate will take place on Oct. 11 in Danville, Ky.

Crowley’s debate will be a town hall style debate with a focus on foreign and domestic issues.

Earlier this summer, CBS News reported on three teenagers from Montclair, N.J., who started an online petition on Change.org to get a female debate moderator. They collected more than 122,000 signatures.

On their petition Monday, the teens declared victory with Sammi Siegel stating, “What a huge victory for women, for equal representation, and for the more than 180,000 people who stood with us and demanded a female presidential debate moderator.” (In addition to their petition for the Commission on Presidential Debates, the teens began another petition for the Romney and Obama campaigns.)

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