Charlie Crist is challenging St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch to a televised debate, opening a new front in the Nov. 3 runoff over how and where the two candidates should face voters.
Crist, who finished first in the six-candidate primary, proposed that each campaign designate a representative to negotiate a debate with a local television station, including the format, date and rules. His campaign framed the proposal around public access, arguing that previous in-person forums reached relatively small audiences.
“In-person forums often have limited attendance, while a televised debate can be accessed by all voters and other residents and stakeholders in the comfort of their own living rooms,” Crist said in a prepared statement. “This information is too important to share one room at a time.”
Welch’s campaign countered that the mayor has already called for multiple runoff debates and accused Crist of selectively participating in forums during the primary.
“Since election night, Mayor Welch has called for multiple runoff debates, not just one, because the people of St. Petersburg deserve several opportunities to hear directly from both candidates about their actual plans for running this city,” Welch campaign senior adviser Adrienne Bogen said in a statement provided to Poliverse.
“Meanwhile, Charlie has been noticeably absent several times,” Bogen added. “Charlie is just now arriving late and pretending it was his idea.”
Crist campaign spokesperson Michelle Todd Schorsch rejected the suggestion that Crist has avoided debates and pointed to his experience in statewide and national political campaigns.
“Charlie Crist has debated on the national stage, with some of the highest stakes. So to suggest he’s afraid to debate Ken Welch is laughable,” Schorsch declared, while challenging the value of smaller candidate events as substitutes for a broadly televised debate.
“Repeating bureaucratic slogans and indecipherable acronyms in a room of 14 people is not a debate,” Schorsch said. “We repeat our challenge to Ken Welch to agree to a televised debate so that the widest audience of voters can see the difference between a failed leader and a leader who will restart St. Pete.”
Crist did not participate in the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club forum during the primary, and his campaign has maintained that he skipped that event because admission came with a ticketed price tag. Instead, they’ve pushed for free events. Schorch also discounted the Chamber at the Trop gathering, saying that it wasn’t a debate, but another ticketed gathering, to which they sent an assistant on Crist’s behalf.
Welch’s campaign counter argued that showing up for local forums matters regardless of size. Schorsch, in turn, noted that Welch left some campaign events before they concluded, including one at the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club.
The exchange follows a primary in which Crist finished well ahead of Welch but failed to clear the threshold needed to win outright, sending the two into a head-to-head runoff. Welch has since pushed for more direct comparisons between their governing records and proposals, while Crist has continued to campaign heavily on affordability and dissatisfaction with City Hall.
Crist’s campaign is now trying to put that comparison on television. “Our vote is our most sacred right as American citizens, and casting it should be a decision weighed carefully,” Crist said. “That means every voter should have the opportunity to hear directly from myself and Mayor Welch as we seek your vote to lead our city over the next four years.”
No television station, date or debate format has yet been announced.