The answer is simple: money.

Yes, Young has let his fundraising slip. The truth is, he has been living off his cash on hand (COH) for several cycles and it has finally reached the point where you can safely say that it’s pretty darn low. Less than two hundred thousand dollars, in fact.

But his last opponent, Charlie Justice, raised less than three hundred thousand, if I recall (I’m too lazy to look it up, but if I’m wrong, it’s not by much). And Young is more than capable of bringing in $100K a quarter without getting out of bed, simply by having someone mail donation envelopes to lobbyists, PACs, and defense contractors.

The way to beat him is money. I would say at least $1 million, with most of that being put on television and a serious investment in a ground game, with a considerable team of organizers in the field.

And do you have a candidate in mind who can raise that?

Didn’t think so.

Ken Welch is broadly popular, but he hasn’t shown the ability nor the desire to raise that kind of money. Down the road, Kriseman could become that, but he’s not nearly there yet.

Yes, Democrats should run someone – not credible, since I’ve just spent this post explaining that there really isn’t a credible candidate (credible in the sense of having a half decent at winning), but someone with a good profile who won’t embarrass anyone – but folks need to get away from focusing on guys like Bill Young and start focusing on winning city council and mayoral races and then on state legislative and countywide races.

Then, once a sizeable number of Democrats have clout at the county level, let’s talk about Young. Of course, he’ll probably have retired by then (and don’t think that Republicans Karen Seel and Frank Hibbard aren’t licking their chops at that eventuality).

I should add that if you live in St Pete or Largo, you will have a chance to vote for some up and coming Democrats in municipal elections. St Peter City Councilman Steve Kornell is great candidate, great member of the city council, and just a good guy to boot and I’ve heard great things about another St Pete candidate, Charlie Gerdes, and about Largo City Commission candidate, Michael Smith.