All public seats for gubernatorial debate taken

Tickets for the Aug. 29 debate between gubernatorial candidates Rob McKenna and Jay Inslee were snatched up within 20 minutes of them becoming available to the public Thursday morning on the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce’s website.

Tickets for this month’s debate became available at 8 a.m. Thursday. By 8:20 a.m., all 43 tickets for the public were gone. The tickets were free and available on a first-come, first served basis.

Those who signed up for a ticket could only reserve one rather than a group of tickets.

The debate will take place 8 to 9 p.m. Aug. 29 in the auditorium at Washington State University Vancouver. It will be broadcast live on KATU-TV, and KATU anchor Brian Wood will be the host. It will be rebroadcast on CVTV.

The university’s auditorium seats 190 people. About a quarter of those seats were reserved for the public, while the remainder of the seats have been given to the Inslee and McKenna campaigns, Clark County schools, other community groups, and local governments, such as Camas and La Center.