2006 Know Your Candidates

Rookie grandma vs. veteran

U.S. House of Representatives: 10th District

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE, Times Staff Writer
Published October 25, 2006

Voters in the 10th Congressional District have two very different candidates from which to choose. One is powerful, 18-term Republican incumbent C.W. Bill Young. The other is Democrat Samm Simpson, who is seeking political office for the first time.

Young has had no serious challengers since 1992. That year, he beat Karen Moffitt with nearly 57 percent of the vote, his closest re-election bid since joining Congress in 1970.

Simpson, 52, said she respects what Young has done during his time in Congress, but that the district needs "new vision and fresh perspectives and more accountability."

Young, 75, is chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. He is known for bringing projects and money to the district. In August, for example, he announced that Lockheed Martin's Pinellas Park plant would produce the canopy for the F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter.

Although his name adorns several projects, including the C.W. Bill Young Regional Reservoir in Hillsborough County, he said he is most proud of helping start the National Marrow Donor Program in 1986.

"It has been responsible for saving thousands of lives already," he said.

Simpson, who serves on Dunedin's Community Redevelopment Agency Advisory Committee and Board of Finance, bills herself as a grandmother and says it's one of the reasons she's in the race.

"We need to change direction in this country," she said. "I'm particularly concerned about the loss of our civil liberties, the separation of church and state, expanding presidential powers, increasing debt, lack of congressional oversight and a safer world for our children and grandchildren.

"I will stand against it (this administration), and my opponent will not."

Young touts his "long established record of making things happen" for the county and country.

"You can't travel very long in Pinellas County without coming in contact with something good that I have made happen," he said. "I take my responsibilities very seriously. I work on issues based on what's good, rather than what's good politically. ... I have a lot of credibility built up, with members of both parties."

Instead of paying the $9,726 entry fee to get on the ballot, Simpson and volunteers spent five weeks collecting the 4,089 signatures needed. Through Aug. 16, she raised $9,189 in donations compared with Young's $356,392.

THE CANDIDATES

Republican

C.W. Bill Young was born in Harmarville, Pa., and moved to the St. Petersburg area at 15. He left school when his mother became ill and he had to help take care of his younger brother. Young held his first job at age 12, working in a gas station after school and on Saturdays. He's been working ever since, he said. He is a veteran of the Army National Guard and was in the insurance business before entering politics. He served 10 years in the Florida Senate before his election to Congress in 1970. He is chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, and a member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Quality of Life and Veterans Affairs. Assets: Homes in Indian Shores and the Washington, D.C., area. Liabilities: Mortgages. Sources of income: Salary and Social Security. Web site: www.house.gov/young.

Democrat

Samm Simpson, 52, was born in Iowa City, Iowa. She moved to Dunedin in 1982. She attended the University of Northern Colorado and earned a bachelor's degree from Eckerd College. She was a radio broadcaster in Minneapolis and Denver from 1974 to 1982. She moved to this area in 1982 as creative services director at WFTS-TV and worked for Raymond James & Associates from 1984 to 2001. She managed television and radio operations for the Pinellas County Economic Development Office from 2001 to 2003. She hosts a monthly television show, Media Is Propaganda, on Pinellas' public access channel. Assets: Home in Dunedin, property in North Carolina, individual retirement account, deferred compensation account (457), stocks. Liabilities: Mortgage, credit card. Sources of income: Retirement account, voice-over jobs, companion's salary. Web site: www.samm simpsonforcongress.com.

THE JOB

U.S. representative, 10th District

U.S. representatives serve two-year terms and are paid $165,200. District 10 includes most of Pinellas County south of Clearwater, plus Dunedin and Palm Harbor.

[Last modified November 3, 2006, 13:04:47]