Two days after a Public Policy Polling (PPP) survey showed him trailing a generic Democrat 48-43, Florida Rep. C.W. ?Bill? Young has announced that he will not seek re-election in 2014. Citing partisan gridlock and personal health concerns, the longest serving House Republican has decided to call it quits and step down. With remarkable candor, the now lame-duck representative also pointed out that he believes Speaker of the House John Boehner has ceded control of the GOP to an extremist Tea Party faction. Young stated that Boehner:
?[…] has agreed to the outspoken minority of his conference. And they’re pretty much in charge right now.?
Representative Young was first elected to Congress in 1970, when Richard Nixon was in the White House. He has served under eight U.S. Presidents. In 22 Congressional elections he has cleared 60 percent of the vote 20 times, failing only in 1992 when he earned 57 percent of the vote and in 2012 when Democrat Jessica Ehrlich again held him to around 57 percent in a hard fought race.
Ehrlich, a 39 year old Attorney who was not even born when Young started serving in Congress, sought a rematch in 2014. Young, however may have lost the stomach for another fight as a poll released on Monday showed him trailing a generic Democrat 48-43 in the wake of the government shutdown, which has damaged the GOP brand.
With a Gallup Poll showing the Republican Party’s popularity dipping to its lowest point in over twenty years of polling, Mr. Young may have seen the writing on the wall and become one of the first rats to jump a sinking ship. Although his resignation will spare him the indignity of being voted out after 22 terms in Congress, it will probably not save Republicans from losing the seat. Barack Obama won a slim majority in Young’s District in 2012, and given the miserable state of the GOP’s public image right now, his seat becomes a ripe pick up opportunity for Democrats.
