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4 Eager To Unseat 'Nice Guy' Bilirakis

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By BILLY HOUSE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 6, 2008

WASHINGTON - Democrats are lining up for the chance to unseat freshman GOP Rep. Gus Bilirakis next fall.

They suggest there's wide recognition in the Tampa Bay area that Bilirakis is ineffective in the 9th Congressional District seat he won last year after his father, Mike, decided to retire from the job.

The younger Bilirakis' job performance leaves him vulnerable, they insist, even if the congressman and some political experts inside the Washington Beltway don't see it that way.

"I think I've made a real impact," Bilirakis said of his first year in office.

"He's a very nice guy," said two of those four Democrats.

However, former Plant City Mayor John Dicks and William D. "Bill" Mitchell, a Tampa employment lawyer and Navy veteran, are quick to rattle off what they see as the 44-year-old Palm Harbor Republican's shortcomings.

Bilirakis is wrong on the war, wrong on energy, wrong on children's health care, and too much of a rubber stamp for President Bush and Republican Party leaders in Congress, they say.

Dicks, 54, has met with and received encouragement from Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which heads congressional Democrats' recruitment of candidates. Dicks also has hired local political strategist Ana Cruz and campaign finance specialist Joe Perry.

Meanwhile, Mitchell, 60, of Carrollwood, has retained the services of Sutter's Mill Fundraising & Strategy, a nationally recognized Democratic campaign fundraising and consulting firm based in Washington.

Two other Democrats haven't honed their messages at this point in their campaigns. But they, too, want to represent the congressional district that takes in eastern Hillsborough County, northern parts of Pinellas County, including Clearwater, and the coast of Pasco County, including New Port Richey.

Anita de Palma, 66, of Clearwater, who has just finished four terms as the Florida director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, says she is now in the process of filing candidacy papers with the Federal Election Commission. Her campaign will reflect that she is the only woman and lone Hispanic in the race, she said.

Michael van Hoek, 49, of Valrico, a paramedic and a member of the Hillsborough Democratic Club, said he's running because of his recent "reawakening" to the need to return the House of Representatives to being "the people's house."

Incumbent Connects With Voters

Now an incumbent, Bilirakis enjoys advantages over challengers that go beyond his family name.

Incumbents in Congress recorded a 91.3 percent re-election rate in 2006, down only slightly from the 97 percent to 98 percent range seen in recent years, according to the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies.

Also, despite Republican difficulties last year, Bilirakis won the race for his father's seat over Democrat Phyllis Busansky 56 percent to 44 percent, outspending the former member of the Hillsborough County Commission $2.6 million to $1.4 million.

Bilirakis recently has started using what amounts to a modern version of an incumbent's taxpayer-paid fliers or brochures - holding "tele-town halls" with constituents.

A message is left on the phones of thousands of district residents inviting them to dial in to hear Bilirakis speak and ask him questions. It's all paid for out of Bilirakis' congressional office budget.

Incumbents like Bilirakis also build up goodwill in their districts by securing special federal funding for favored projects at home. Though he is a freshman lawmaker, Bilirakis has steered money to his district, including $136,000 for the Plant City Police Department for new crime-fighting computer equipment.

His Legislation Made Headlines

An incumbent also can grab media exposure through well-timed legislation or other congressional activities tied to the news of the day.

Bilirakis responded to the arrests of two University of South Florida students born in Egypt who were caught with explosives with legislation that made news. His bill would allow tracking and more-thorough background checks on foreign students to block any with terrorist ties from participating in the U.S. student visa program.

Details of that legislation and other Bilirakis activities on the House committees on Foreign Affairs, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs also can be found at www.bilirakis .house.gov, a taxpayer-funded Web site. That site also is home to "Bilirakis TV" and Bilirakis blog.

Bilirakis said he hasn't started focusing on fundraising for a re-election campaign. Even so, his campaign committee's latest filings with the Federal Election Commission show that Bilirakis has raised $337,462 in contributions since January and has $268,719 in the bank.

Even without such incumbent advantages, Republicans running in the district have an edge because their party tops Democrats in voter registration, 183,752 to 152,056.

Despite that, the four Democrats who hope to be the party's pick to run against Bilirakis think he is vulnerable.

Dicks and Mitchell have been reminding people that Bilirakis was listed in a national ranking last year as the second-least powerful member of the House (behind the five nonvoting delegates), 438th overall.

Brad Fitch, CEO of Fairfax-based Knowlegis, said Bilirakis suffered from being an incoming freshman with no record yet to assess, and that the ranking was "like judging a baseball player before he's ever had a chance to bat."

Fitch, whose company was behind last year's congress.org ranking, said updated rankings will be released late this month or in February, and lawmakers who have had success passing legislation and getting member items for their home districts generally will fare well.

House records show Bilirakis introduced at least 24 bills, resolutions and amendments last year, and had two provisions he authored addressing public transportation and rail security incorporated into a larger bill signed into law.

Fitch predicted Bilirakis will be headed to a higher ranking.

Dicks and Mitchell are correct that Bilirakis typically votes the same way his party leaders do. Voting data tracked by The Washington Post show Bilirakis voted in step with his party leaders 92.5 percent of the time in more than 1,100 votes last year. The average for other House Republicans was 84.9 percent.

Locking Down The Votes

The area's other freshman member of the House, Tampa Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor, has voted with her party leaders 97.6 percent of the time. The average for Democrats is 92.5 percent.

In an interview, de Palma claimed Bilirakis missed a lot of House votes in his first year.

But vote-tracking data show Bilirakis missed just 11 votes out of 1,186, or 0.9 percent, less than the House average of 4.2 percent (or about 50 missed votes). Castor has missed 33 votes, or 2.8 percent.

"I will be much better to speak on Bilirakis' record in a week or so," de Palma said. "What I do know is that there's a lot of disappointment being expressed by his constituents."

If that's true, it has not been enough to persuade political experts such as David Wasserman of The Cook Political Report to list Bilirakis' congressional seat among the 22 held by Republicans that he views as potentially in danger.

"And there's good reason for that," Wasserman said.

"In 2006, Bilirakis posted an impressive victory in a Democrat targeted district when Republicans were doing terribly in other places.

"And it seems that constituents haven't missed a beat between the changeover from Mike to Gus Bilirakis."

Also, Democrats tell Wasserman there are better opportunities to pick up seats elsewhere in Florida.

Democratic resources are more likely to go into trying to unseat Republican Rep. Tom Feeney of Oviedo, who took part in a junket that violated House rules, a House ethics panel revealed last year. The panel did not censure Feeney, who agreed to pay the government for the trip's cost.

Party resources also are likely to be steered at defending Democratic seats viewed as potentially vulnerable, such as the one held by freshman Rep. Tim Mahoney of Venus.

If veteran Republican Rep. C.W. Bill Young of Indian Shores does not seek re-election, winning that district also will be a top priority of both parties.

Kyra Jennings, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said the committee has not formally endorsed a Democrat to run against Bilirakis.

But she did say Dicks, the former Plant City mayor, has "a base of support in the more-conservative area of the district and is building a strong early campaign."

"Floridians have already grown tired of the ineffective representation and rubberstamp style Gus Bilirakis has shown in his first year in Congress," Jennings said.

Reporter William March contributed to this story. Reporter Billy House can be reached at bhouse@tampatrib.com or (202) 662-7673.

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