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Gov. Charlie Crist has asked yet another round of former politicians to fill out applications for Senate. When will this end? When every Republicans to ever hold public office in Florida has submitted answers to Charlie Crist’s questionnaire.
The latest round includes former U.S. Reps. Mike Bilirakis, Lou Frey, and Clay Shaw.
Bilirakis, a spritely 79 years old, represented Florida’s Ninth District in the northern Tampa Bay area for 24 years before retiring and leaving the door open for his son’s election to the seat.
Frey represented the same district, but a different area, before Bilirakis. Yes, that means he hasn’t been in Congress since the late ’70s, though at 75, he’s younger than Bilirakis. If chosen, he’d serve alongside the man who won his district when he retired, Sen. Bill Nelson.
Shaw, the youngest of this bunch at 70, represented a stretch of Broward and West Palm in Congress for 26 years before being defeated by Ron Klein in 2006.
This brings the total number of people still in contention to ten, including Sen. Dan Webster, U.S. Rep. Bill Young, state Rep. Jennifer Carroll, former U.S. Attorney Roberto Martinez, lobbyist Jim Smith, former Jacksonville Mayor John Delaney, and Crist’s former chief of staff, George LeMieux.
That’s eight white guys, one Cuban-American man, and an African-American woman. All, obviously, Republican.
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