No Labels event in NH to draw Sanders, Trump

WASHINGTON — Businessman Donald Trump, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Ohio Gov. John Kasich will headline a bipartisan presidential forum in New Hampshire next month aimed at addressing the nation's most urgent problems.

No Labels, a group that targets dysfunctional government, is holding a daylong "Problem Solver Convention" on Oct. 12 with eight presidential candidates in Manchester, New Hampshire.

GOP candidates Trump and Kasich will speak at the event along with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and former New York Gov. George Pataki.

Democratic hopefuls Sanders, ex-Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley and former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb will also address the convention. Organizers said Sanders would speak via satellite from Las Vegas, Nevada, where Democrats will be holding their first presidential debate the following night.

Hillary Rodham Clinton was asked if she would attend the No Labels event earlier this month during a campaign appearance at the University of New Hampshire and said that she would be preparing for the Nevada debate.

More than 1,000 New Hampshire voters are expected at the forum, which will be hosted by former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, onetime presidential candidates who are co-chairs of No Labels. The event is expected to include more than a dozen members of Congress and local and state officials.

"There has never been an event like this before," Huntsman said in a statement. "To have so many presidential candidates from both parties gathered at the same event speaks to the growing influence of the No Labels movement and the growing desire for a new politics of problem solving in America."

No Labels has promoted several bipartisan policy agenda items ahead of the 2016 presidential campaign, including job creation, a balanced federal budget, securing Medicare and Social Security and energy independence.