The forum featured Stassen and California Gov. Earl Warren from the Republican side and federal official Averell Harriman, Oklahoma Sen. Robert Kerr, and Tennessee Sen. Estes Kefauver from the Democrats. Sen. Richard Russell, a Georgia Democrat, and Sen. Robert Taft, an Ohio Republican, stayed away. So did Illinois Gov. Adlai Stevenson, who was not running officially but holding out for a "draft." Gen. Dwight Eisenhower compromised, sending a proxy, Ford Foundation executive Paul Hoffman. Unlike the Dewey-Stassen contest, a question-and-answer format was used. But because this was the age before sound bites, and answers were allowed to run long, only two questions were asked: "How would you prevent dishonesty and inefficiency in government?" and "Would you increase or reduce the amount of economic aid to foreign countries?" The five-way debate generated less interest than had the Dewey-Stassen match—the New York Times put it on Page 13 the next day—but it did keep alive the prospect of general-election debates between the principals.