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Demand for tickets to presidential debate at Hofstra

BY KARLA SCHUSTER | karla.schuster@newsday.com

October 9, 2008

The calls and e-mails began almost immediately after Hofstra University was tapped to host next week's third and final presidential debate.

They come from the desperate and the deep-pocketed, elected officials, estranged relatives, and even a few long-lost grade school classmates, all asking the same question: "Can you get me in?"

And mostly, they all get the same answer: No.

"I can't blame people for asking - it's a once-in-a-lifetime event - but it's not in our control," said Hofstra's vice president of university relations, Melissa Connolly. "We could have filled up the arena 10 times over with the requests we've gotten."

Traditionally, debate tickets get doled out by the Commission on Presidential Debates, and the two campaigns. A small allotment of the commission's tickets are turned over to the host institution, which gives them to students.

In this case, Hofstra says it expects to receive no more than 150 tickets. About 6,800 students entered an online lottery for the chance to see the debate live. Those entries were narrowed to a few hundred, who have been told they "may" get a chance to attend. The lucky students could be notified as late as Tuesday because last-minute changes to security and media configurations can change the number of audience seats available.

In fact, the debate venue - the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex - is normally a 5,000-seat arena that will likely hold no more than about 1,000 people for Wednesday's final showdown between Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain, university officials estimate.

"There's so many groups involved - between the media, the campaigns, the Secret Service, the production people - we won't know until the day of the event how much the house will hold," said Scott Warner, a spokesman for the Commission on Presidential Debates.

Hofstra plans several debate-watching events on-campus for students, community residents, faculty and alumni - including a reception hosted by president Stuart Rabinowitz in the library. Rabinowitz, who will deliver a welcoming address in the arena, plans to give his ticket to a student, Connolly said.

The clamor for tickets has grown so intense in recent weeks that at least one prominent Nassau politico refused to even discuss whether he or she had a ticket on the record. "If I say I'm going, the phone won't stop," the person said.

Ask Suffolk County Legis. Jon Cooper (D-Lloyd Harbor), Obama's Long Island campaign director. "I can't go to the supermarket or a restaurant without someone coming up to me, asking me for tickets," Cooper said.

About a month ago, a classmate from Willits Elementary School in Syosset called him to catch up - after nearly 40 years.

"She spent about 10 minutes with pleasantries and then all of sudden, she was talking about the debate," Cooper said. "The number of newfound friends I have is amazing. "

Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi encounters incredulity when he tells people he can't get them tickets. "They're like, 'Come on, you're the county executive, you can get tickets' and I tell them, 'I'm trying to get them myself!'"

Suozzi said he expects two tickets from the debate commission, but he knows there are no guarantees.

"Right now, I think I've got two tickets - one for me and I don't know who's getting the other one," Suozzi said. "It's either my wife, the [county] Democratic chairman or my father."

HOW TICKETS ARE ALLOCATED

Tickets for presidential debates are doled out by the Commission on Presidential Debates and the two campaigns.

A small number are turned over to the host institution. The number of seats for the debate at Hofstra University next week has not been established, but is expected to be no more than 1,000.

The university says it expects to receive no more than 150 tickets, virtually all of which will be distributed to current students through a lottery.

No debate tickets are available for the public, administrators, faculty, alumni or parents through the university.