Hillsborough/Pinellas Democratic State Senator Charlie Justice is potentially longtime Congressman Bill Young's most formidable challenger in ages. That is, if Young announces he's running for office in Florida's 10th District, which, if successful, would mark 39 years in Congress.
Though Young has yet to declare his candidacy, close observers of the Congressman believe now that he will run at least one more time in Congress, this time against a Democrat who announced his candidacy a full 19 months before the November 2010 election date.
Last week Justice seized on a St. Petersburg Times story that reported on Young's tendencies to funnel millions of dollars in projects to lobbying firms employing former staffers. Speaking to CL over the weekend, Justice said he had concerns about the story, saying, " There’s a way that things used to be done in Washington and I think a lot of us feel we have to change the things that were doing in Washington. " Justice referred indirectly to the Ray Sansom situation in Tallahassee as an example of the dangers of inserting items in a budget at the last minute, something he said that happens "a lot" in D.C.
This article appears in Feb 10-16, 2010.