There are many safe gerrymandered congressional districts throughout the county, one reason why incumbents get re-elected in the U.S. on average over 90% of the time, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
For every District 10 race, where Democrat Charlie Justice is expected to challenge 39-year incumbent Bill Young later this year (his first serious challenge in a long time), there are other Bay area districts, such as 9 & 11, that have remained under one party rule for generations.
District 11 is what encompasses much of Hillsborough County and parts of Pinellas and Manatee Counties, and currently its representative is Democrat Kathy Castor.
Before Castor won the open seat in 2006, Jim Davis held the seat for a decade, and before Davis, it was Sam Gibbons, who held it for 36 years. All Democrats.
So when the four Republican men who aspire to run against Castor debated earlier this week, undoubtedly the sharpest question asked to any of them was directed to Tony Buntyn, an Information Technology Security Engineer and a Colonel in the US Air Force Reserve.
This article appears in Apr 21-27, 2010.
