Charlie Crist's delicate task of making everyone in the GOP happy and yet finding someone to appoint to a caretaker role in the US Senate now that Mel Martinez has quit in mid-job continued yesterday, with one fewer candidate for the position: Congressman C. W. Bill Young, a Republican from Indian Rocks Beach.
The Times reports:
Young was among 10 people, including former U.S. Rep. Mike Bilirakis of Palm Harbor, the governor had summoned for interviews about being appointed to fill out the remaining 16 months of Mel Martinez's Senate term. But in this case Young, a Tampa Bay political icon who has been Crist's U.S. representative for most of the governor's life, was clearly the man in charge.
Surprising the governor, Young told Crist he's not interested in applying to be appointed as an interim U.S. senator.
"I have the best job in the world now, and I work for the best people in the world. I would not want to leave in the middle of a term. I'm not a quitter," Young, 78, said after emerging from a private meeting with Crist at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport. "Truth of the matter is, I can do far more for Florida and Pinellas County where I am than if I took a different job."
This article appears in Aug 19-25, 2009.