Mark Bircher, the retired Marine Corps Reserve brigadier general who finished third in the Republican race for Pinellas County’s 13th Congressional District race in January 2014, will hold his first event as a candidate for the 2016 CD 13 race on Tuesday night in Clearwater.
The 62-year-old Bircher, currently a commercial pilot, will appear at 6 p.m. at the Quaker Steak and Lube in Clearwater at 10400 49th St N. (The facility will later be hosting a party to watch the GOP presidential debate in Las Vegas).
Bircher is the first Republican to enter the CD 13 contest. Charlie Crist and Eric Lynn are running for the Democratic nomination.
The newly configured CD 13 seat leans much more Democratic friendly than when Bircher ran for the position two years ago. At that point, the Pinellas County district held a slight GOP edge in terms of voter registration. But the Florida Supreme Court ruled over the summer that it was one of eight congressional districts that were created in violation of the 2010 Fair District constitutional amendments. The Court declared that Kathy Castor‘s district across the Bay in Hillsborough County should no longer cut into Pinellas, meaning that the more Democratic-leaning southern part of Pinellas County would be redrawn in.
That decision paved the way for the district’s current representative, David Jolly, to decide that he would not run for reelection in 2016, but instead attempt to win the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Marco Rubio next year.
Former St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker has indicated that he might be interested in running for the Republican nomination for the district, but has not declared yet.
