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The chairwoman of the Iowa Democratic Party appeared to acknowledge this week that complaints about the party’s compressed presidential debate calendar from candidates trailing in the polls are understandable.

The party chairwoman, Dr. Andy McGuire, also suggested her own party’s influence on the process was restricted to “locations and timing.”

Dr. McGuire made the comments in an interview with WHO-TV. The Democratic National Committee scheduled two of the four debates for after the Iowa caucuses, a move that critics argue serves to benefit the leader in most polls, Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose campaign had sought fewer debates.

The first one is in Nevada in October and six are scheduled in total. The Republican Party has sanctioned nine debates for its candidates.

More debates can serve to help underdog competitors as they try to raise their profiles and bring in campaign donations, and in 2007, there were several debates in Iowa. Of complaints from one candidate in particular, Martin O’Malley, that the D.N.C. pushed two debates past the Iowa caucuses to benefit Mrs. Clinton, Dr. McGuire struck a sympathetic note.

“I understand where he’s coming from,” she said, “but I really think we have a lot of debates.”

Dr. McGuire — a practicing physician, medical researcher and health care executive — suggested that retail politics in Iowa would be more important.

“I’d like to have debates every day in Iowa and I think that’s kind of what we do,” she said. “And I tell candidates all the time, come here as much as you can, talk to our constituencies, our citizens about the issues that are important to people to Iowa families. I think the D.N.C. has a lot of different options to weigh.”