Meek: CBS picked April 27

Jerry Meek says he is not siding with Hillary Clinton.

The head of the state Democratic Party said that Barack Obama first suggested April 19 for a debate. Meek said that "it just seemed obvious" that the first day of Passover was not an appropriate date, so CBS News made several suggestions and the state party selected a new date.

"We picked the 27th out of a range of dates that the CBS senior vice president gave to us after conferring with the Obama campaign," Meek said.

He said the network suggested the 25th, 26th and 27th, and the party went with the last because the prime time slot on the 27th is after "60 Minutes" and it's one of the more coveted time slots on network television.

The party then invited Clinton and Obama to participate, and Clinton agreed first.

"The suggestion in the Chris Kromm piece that Senator Clinton picked that date and we merely supported that date is false," he said.