(UPDATE 3:25: Rose Ferlita has sent a letter to Bob Buckhorn requesting he participate in four already scheduled debates. See below.)
The Hillsborough County League of Women Voters and City of Tampa Television broadcast debates over the last month between all of the City Council and Mayoral races, and intend to do the same for the runoff elections taking place on March 22.
In anticipation of the runoffs, the LWV had previously announced that they intended to tape what will be five different forums, one with Rose Ferlita and Bob Buckhorn, as well as the city council races in Districts 1,3,4 and 7 all this Friday, March 4.
But unfortunately, Rose Ferlita didn't get the memo – literally.
Hillsborough League of Women Voters head Mickey Castor informed CL that Ferlita is apparently booked solid on Friday as there was obviously a breakdown in communications with the staff and the candidate, about saving the date. CL learned about this because this reporter was preparing questions as one of the panelists for the forum. Castor says the forum will be held sometime late next week.
We'll update this page when we learn when the four city council forums will be televised on the channel, as well as the mayoral forum.
UPDATE: Ferlita is asking Bob Buckhorn to agree to these four debates.
1. March 8: Bay News 9/St. Petersburg Times
2. March 11: Channel 8/League of Women Voters Debate
3. March 15: WFLA (970 AM)
4. March 18: Tiger Bay
This article appears in Mar 3-9, 2011.