Candidates in the Second Congressional District race will square off at a debate that will be broadcast to the world via webcast.

The debate has been scheduled for Wednesday, October 5 and will take place at Pixel Corps, a Petaluma video production and training company.

The new Congressional District 2 spans the California coast from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Oregon border, part of which is the former District 6, represented by Lynn Woolsey, who is retiring this year.

There are already seven candidates vying for her seat, including Assemblymember Jared Huffman, Petaluma Councilwoman Tiffany Renee, media critic and author Norman Solomon and Marin County Supervisor Susan Adams, who will attend the debate. One Republican candidate, Daniel Roberts, a Vietnam veteran and president of a San Francisco investment company, will also attend.

The debate will have a small in-house audience of about 20 people, but will be viewable online at cncm.us. It will also be broadcast on public access and commercial stations and highlighted on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Part of the reason organizers wanted to do it via the web was to give audiences greater access, said Jason Davies, vice president of business development at Bias, an audio software company, and a former contender for the Petaluma City Council, who will co-host the debate.

"It's such a big district, so we really want to increase the reach," he said.

On October 4, the Young Democrats of Sonoma County will hold a separate debate among the Democratic candidates at Petaluma's City Hall. It will be limited to 100 people and starts at 7pm.