The New Hampshire Republican Party canceled its partnership with Fox News for tonight's GOP presidential debate. The network invited only five candidates, based on their position in national polls. That criteria leaves out Rep. Ron Paul, who has developed a fervent following in New Hampshire.

"The first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary serves a national purpose by giving all candidates an equal opportunity on a level playing field," said the state GOP Chairman Fergus Cullen. "Only in New Hampshire do lesser-known, lesser-funded underdogs have a fighting chance to establish themselves as national figures."

Fox has invited Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee to speak with its Sunday news host, Chris Wallace.

In New Hampshire, Paul is outpolling Thompson and is nearly tied with Giuliani, ahead of whom he finished in the Iowa caucuses last week. Yesterday, he brought up his exclusion in his stump speech, saying that Fox's decision kept him in the second tier.

"The greatest obstacle really is the resistance of the status quo," he told a house party in Milford. "We do well in the polls, and we have credibility within all the debates. So Fox comes along and says: 'He's not a credible candidate. We're not even going to allow him in the forum on Sunday.' "

But Paul, who raised more than $19.5 million in the fourth quarter, put a positive spin on the snub.

"In a way, it just really rallies the troops," he said. "It just makes our people work harder, and more determined, and it's sort of like a battle cry."

David Rhodes, Fox's vice president for news, offered a one-sentence explanation for not inviting Paul or Rep. Duncan Hunter, who placed third in yesterday's Wyoming GOP caucus: "We look forward to presenting a substantive forum which will serve as the first program of its kind this election season."

The network's criteria for determining who would participate in its roundtable discussion was double-digit standing in national polls. Paul supporters and some political analysts have called this year's telephone polls flawed because many likely voters do not have landlines.

Cullen said the state GOP had partnered with Fox during a debate at the University of New Hampshire in September, which included eight candidates. Thompson declined to attend that debate. In a Concord Monitor poll released yesterday, Thompson polled at 3 percent, below Paul's 7 percent. The most recent nationwide poll from the Pew Research Center ranked Fred Thompson at 9 percent, and Ron Paul at only 4.

"Our argument is that all candidates should be included," said Cullen. "It is not the media's role to determine who is a viable candidate and who is not, prior to any votes being cast."

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By ETHAN WILENSKY-LANFORD

Monitor staff