Posted on 10/09/2013 3:33:23 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
Republican names previously mentioned for his seat include former St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker, former Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard and Pinellas County commissioners Karen Seel and John Morroni. Young's son, Bill Young II, has been openly considering running for a St. Petersburg state House seat next year.
(Excerpt) Read more at tampabay.com ...
This one is iffy, but if Republicans nominate an astute, well-known candidate, I’d give our side about a 50/50 chance.
I guess the headline was written for the folks in Port St. Lucie.
I remember seeing his campaign signs all over when I was a child in St Pete. I am now 57 years old. He has held elective office for over 50 years. Not what the founders had in mind.
The St. Petersburg Times/Pravda, err, Tampa Bay Times jumps with glee!
I was really disappointed when redistricting put me in Young’s District instead of Bilirakis’s.
"Spend more time with his family"?! At your age you're using that phrase? That's a barely believable excuse for a 52 year old politician to make.
Two things, old man:
1. At 82, whatever family you have is damn near as elderly as you are. The opportunity for bonding with them was back in the 1960s. If you missed that because you instead served fifty years in Congress striving to have public parks and bridges named in your honor, well, that's what you chose to waste your life on. Let's hope you're not around to see what kind of creeps and fiends prowl 'Bill Young Park' after the sun goes down.
2. Nobody wants to go visit doddering old relatives. Best you can hope to get is maybe one last three-hour afternoon visit from whatever family is passing through and they'll all pile back into the minivan the moment you nod off in that old chair of yours with the shawl wrapped over the back. Grandkids see those shaky liver-spotted mummy mitts of yours reaching towards their little pink faces and they think 'EEEK!', wincing in dreadful anticipation of your yellowing teeth and quivering wrinkled lips drawing near to plant a kiss they're obligated to have inflicted upon them.
Too bad you didn't have the honesty to say "I'm retiring on the count of old-assedness. Thank you." and leave it at that.
Bilirakis is OK..he’ my congresscritter..but this whole nepotism thing is really annoying me...it’s not a family seat...
The district leans slightly RAT, so this will not be an easy hold in an open-seat scenario. 50/50 sounds about right in a non-presidential year.
Not true. District 13, my home district, leans right. The district is 96% white middle class families. We are one of the few solidly Republican districts in Pinellas county, and you don’t have to bust out the “Who voted for Obama” map, because yes, our county fell to Obama, but if you look, voter turnout was ABYSMAL for 2012 general. Most of the district stayed home.
you and me both.
glad to see him getting out of the seat. he’s been retired in place for a number of years.
but hey... he votes!!
(like its a major accomplishment)
The district, as currently drawn, was carried by Obama over McCain by 51.3%-47.5% in 2008 and by Obama over Romney by 50.1%-48.6% in 2012. Democrat Senator Bill Nelson almost certainly carried the CD by an even larger margin last year, and even in Republican Governor Scott’s successful 2010 run, he probably did worse in the CD than did Romney in 2012 (he certainly did worse countywide). So I think that my characterization of the district as “leaning slightly RAT” is appropriate, as was my conclusion that 50/50 odds of a Republican holding it in (non-presidential) 2014 sound about right.
As for your claim of “abysmal” turnout in 2012, I’m not so sure about that: turnout in Pinellas was 459,000, which was only 6,000 votes lower than in 2008 (and I think that the largest decrease was in the black parts of St. Pete in Castor’s FL-14) and 4,000 votes *higher* than in 2004; turnout was also 60,000 votes higher than in 2000, although that’s to be expected, since turnout has been much higher throughout FL since that election. So I don’t think that Obama’s victories in FL-13 can be blamed on “abysmal turnout.”
I hope that your district nominates a good candidate, with similar devotion to constituency service and principled conservatism as Bill Young. The GOP has a good chance of winning the district in an off-year election such as 2014, and the power of incumbency will help us keep it in presidential 2016. But please do not think for a second that winning the district next year will be anything short of a tough fight.
Bill Young has been around so long he is now longer “young” except in name. I would think this will be a Democrat gain.
Yes, it’s amusing how his name is Young. We should run a 25 year old named Oldman.
I’ll opening the betting at 50/50 as well.
This seat goes to #2 on the small list of our seats that are genuinely vulnerable to the rats, behind Cali-31 and ahead of CO-6.
We absolutely will NOT nominate a good candidate. Having been a poll watcher for the last 3 election cycles and done door-to-door stuff for the local Tea Party folks, and I can tell you that there's a distinct malaise among north Pinellas people. I've lived in this area for over 30 years, and I've never seen it so down in the mouth.
We used to be a bustling bedroom community of families, but we've fallen into renter Hell as young couples rent houses and townhomes all over the place but never stake a claim anywhere. Local politics in this part of the county are dying, sadly, and that observation along with personally witnessing quieter-than-normal polling places on election days is what led me to my abysmal turnout commentary.
Say what you want, quote what statistics you wish, I can tell you that the mood on the streets is very blue, and I don't know that we'll wind up with a real reliable snake oil salesman. Hell, we had C.W. for over 30 years, and he was really no prize except that he brought home a lot of bacon for us.
Former State Rep. from the 90’s, Larry Crow, is the first Republican to enter the race.
Huge list of potential candidates, everyone on both sides has been waiting a long time for Young to retire.
He was too ingrained. I was campaigning for one of his opponents the last 2 election cycles. He’s overstayed his welcome despite bringing home a lot of pork for his district.
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