- Shanna Gillette
- Nina Hayden & Jessica Ehrlich
In a little more than two months, Democratic voters in Florida's newly drawn Congressional district 13 will choose between former Washington D.C. congressional staffer Jessica Ehrlich and Nina Hayden, a former Pinellas County School Board member. The winner will get the honor of taking on veteran Congressman Bill Young, who will be vying for his 22nd term in Washington.
On Tuesday, Hayden and Ehrlich met at a Tiger Bay candidate forum held at the St. Petersburg Yacht club, where the first question asked during the Q&A session was if there were any substantive policy differences between the two.
Ehrlich boasted of her inside-the-Beltway experience working with both Republicans and Democrats (she served as a staffer to former South Florida Congressman Clay Shaw and counsel to Massachusetts Representative Stephen Lynch on the Financial Services Committee).
Hayden, a Maryland native who has been extremely active in Pinellas Democratic politics in recent years, said she couldn't really point out any differences as she is just now getting to know Ehrlich's political bent.
This article appears in Jun 7-13, 2012.