David Straz’s campaign bought up most of the tickets to one of the two televised debates to which Straz has agreed, though the campaign said it didn’t purposefully take the majority of them.

Jarrod Holbrook, spokesman for the campaign, issued the following statement to 8 On Your Side:

When tickets were available, a staffer went online and signed up for a large amount of tickets to give to our strong support base interested in attending the debate.  Once this was brought to our attention, we began working with Bay News 9 and we offered to return the tickets.  There were no restrictions or rules in place when our staffer secured the tickets.

The debate is scheduled for April 11 in the Tampa Theatre.

Holbrook said he didn’t know how many tickets the staffer bought or how many were being offered, but said it was “at least 50 percent but not as high as 90 percent.”

The tickets, which were free, are being returned to debate host so they can be available for more people, Holbrook said.

Tim Wagner, Jane Castor’s campaign manager, responded to the controversy with the following statement:

It’s too bad that Mr. Straz wanted to hijack and stack the audience while restricting the ability of voters to attend one of the very few forums and debates he agreed to participate in.

Political analyst Barry Edwards said even though most people will be watching the debate from home, it could still skew the results to have your fans make up the majority of the crowd inside the theatre.

“When you say something that might be moderately funny or moderately substantive, they clap like trained seals,” said Edwards.

“Versus if your opponent makes even a mild gaffe, they boo or hiss. So it creates an enviornment in the arena that is perceived by the people watching as a legitimate reaction.”

Straz has been criticized by some voters recently for skipping the first two debates of the runoff period, though he did participate in a candidate forum organized by the Hillsborough County Democratic Black Caucus.

Straz said he missed the first debate due to an “unavoidable conflict.”

Edwards said it could be more strategy than circumstance.

“He’s running for mayor,” Edwards said.

“I would think that if you got in the runoff, which he expected to be in, he would have had every day between then and the election banked here.” 

Straz missed more of the mayoral events than any other candidate, about a third of the 30 or so events according to multiple estimates by local media and the campaign itself.

His campaign has agreed to three debates in the runoff period, one on the radio and two televised, including this debate at the Tampa Theatre.

Castor has agreed to eight.

Holbrook said there were no restrictions or rules in place preventing the campaign from getting so many tickets, and the staffer didn’t know he or she was taking the majority of the tickets.

Tampa Theatre is a historic venue that holds 1,250 people. 

The first debate of the runoff is scheduled for April 5, followed by this one on April 11. Both will be televised by a local media station.

A third debate will be held on April 12 by WTMP radio 1150 AM/97.5 FM.

The Hillsborough Elections supervisor sent out more than 55,000 mail ballots yesterday. 

Election Day for the Tampa mayoral runoff is April 23.