Dear Republicans: No, those ‘biased’ debates aren’t hurting you. At all.

[Commentary] Republican presidential candidates spent a lot of time hammering out a list of demands for television networks, in hopes of improving the quality of upcoming debates. Which is interesting, because there’s no evidence that the debates -- while certainly frustrating for the candidates at times -- are hurting the GOP’s chances of winning back the White House in 2016. If anything, in fact, they might be helping -- unless you’re Sen Rand Paul (R-KY).

The GOP debates have produced greater awareness of lesser-known candidates, including the rise of Carly Fiorina, which shows GOP voters are responding to what they see the candidates saying to each other on screen (or at least to news reports and commentary around the debates). The debates also are not exacting any significant damage to candidates’ reputations with political independents, according to Gallup data. If there’s any complaint for Republicans in the debates, then, it might be that they’re not helping the field enough. Gallup still shows independents view the GOP candidates, on average, more unfavorably than favorably. Quinnipiac shows the candidates are view just slightly more favorably than not. In both cases, though, most candidates' ratings are at least holding steady – even as they're not nearly as high as the party probably would like them to be