Rep. CW Bill Young’s 38-year tenure in the Congressional District 10 seat centered in St. Petersburg will be a tough one to follow. That is if he ever retires or, even more unlikely, gets kicked out of office.
Despite that, on Thursday night three Democratic candidates vying for the chance to run against Young tried to persuade a room full of Pinellas Democrats that they could be the one to replace a career politician with a “citizen legislator.”
Grandmother and self-proclaimed “true patriot” Samm Simpson, Dunedin Mayor Bob Hackworth and millionaire Max Linn answered questions from the Greater Pinellas Democratic Club, which hosted the debate. Although the three are in line with one another on the length of Young’s term and most of the issues, they do have their differences. How to address the nation’s health care dilemma is one, for instance: Linn and Simpson support the single-payer plan, while Hackworth cited a lack of cooperation and said that he would “work across the aisle to fix a system riddled with inefficiency.”
The candidates also butted heads about the economy: Hackworth called for ending the war in Iraq and investing in the infrastructure, while Simpson somehow wandered from fundamental monetary reform to sending people to jail. Linn, who spoke last and proclaimed that neither of his opponents knew what they were talking about, called for reforming NAFTA — “fair trade, not free trade,” he said — and implementing real estate incentives to get the market going again.
Hackworth, the only one of the three who has been elected to office before, said that it’s going to take bipartisan appeal to beat Young. “It’s not about winning the room tonight. It’s about proving you can beat Bill Young,” Hackworth said. “That’s the point, and it isn’t going to be easy.”
Linn, who fought for more than a decade to establish term limits and ran for governor on the Reform Party ticket in 2006, said he is the only one who can realistically beat the incumbent. “I will squash Bill Young like a tomato,” he said.
Simpson refers to her campaign as a calling, not a career choice. She stayed late not to shake hands but to hug everyone who approached her, and her compassion seems to work, considering the number of people who came up to speak with her afterward. “I want my country back,” she said.
(Photos by Amelia Harnish)
County to come together to address “quality of life issues” such as transportation. Beckner is running for the countywide seat on the Hillsborough County Commission now held by Republican Brian Blair.
