Mitch Perry
Tampa attorney Bob Buesing will again challenge Republican Dana Young in Senate District 18
The 64-year-old Buesing lost to the 53-year-old Young by seven points in 2016, but that was not a one-on-one matchup.
Adult club entrepreneur and progressive activist Joe Redner ran an aggressive campaign (mostly against Young) as well, and finished a distant third with nearly ten percent of the vote.
Although Buesing and other Hillsborough Democrats denied that Redner’s presence would be a drag on his candidacy, Buesing admitted in a brief interview with Florida Politics last week that in fact he had been.
Redner has already announced his support for Buesing in 2018.
Whether Buesing can beat Young in a straight-up matchup remains to be seen, but Buesing says he is confident that with a surge of intensity amongst Democrats, he can be successful.
Young has a substantial head start in fundraising. She now has $160,418 in her campaign for Senate account, and an additional $690,595 in her political committee, Friends of Dana Young.
Between her own campaign contributions and her political committee, Young raised more than $2 million in 2016, while Buesing took in more than $500,000 on his own. His PAC, Floridians for Early Education, raised another $133,000.
The race between the three candidates was intense in 2016, and Buesing seems ready for that same level of intensity this year. Although he was unavailable for comment on Wednesday, he told Florida Politics last summer that “it is interesting that she only got 48 percent of the vote after spending millions and millions of dollars on a false attack smear campaign.” B
District 18 covers much of Tampa and western unincorporated Hillsborough County.
