Rep. Michael Bilirakis (R) Elected 1982, 12th term
Born:	July 16, 1930, Tarpon Springs
Home:	Palm Harbor
Education:	U. of Pittsburgh, B.S. 1959, U. of FL, J.D. 1963
Religion:	Greek Orthodox
Marital Status:	married (Evelyn)
Military Career:	Air Force, 1951-55.
Professional Career:	Steelworker, 1955-59; Govt. contract negotiator, 1959-60; Petroleum engineer, 1960-63; Aerospace Industries admin., 1963-1969; Practicing atty., 1969-82.
DC Office	2408 RHOB20515, 202-225-5755; Fax: 202-225-4085; Web site: www.house.gov/bilirakis
State Offices	Palm Harbor, 727-773-2871; Tampa, 813-960-8173.
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Half a century ago, the land north of St. Petersburg and Tampa was scarcely inhabited. Behind the barrier island of beaches, the land along the Gulf shore was swampy; further inland was dense, semitropical forest spotted with lakes. Over the years, development has moved up the coast and inland via the major highways, first to Clearwater and Tarpon Springs in Pinellas County and then up the once-empty coast of Pasco County. Much of this area originally was designed for retirees, offering everything from condominiums to garden apartments to trailer parks to what is probably the largest array of Medicare HMO plans in the nation. But it has attracted others. Clearwater, in Pinellas County north of St. Petersburg, in 2000 had a higher percentage of senior citizens than any other city over 100,000, but it is also the spiritual headquarters for the Church of Scientology, which has transformed its downtown by buying 200 businesses and building a $50 million Mediterranean Revival-style Scientology religious center. Businesses have sprouted in northern Pinellas County and inland off the I-75 corridor; nearly half of Pasco County's workers commute to jobs in other counties. The people who settled here in recent decades brought their ancestral political beliefs with them: In the 1950s and 1960s, only white-collar retirees could afford to buy new places in Florida, and they were heavily Republican. As Florida retirements became more feasible for people with modest incomes in the 1970s and 1980s, the partisan balance shifted toward Democrats. In the 1990s, young in-migrants with professional and technical backgrounds flooded the area; their political independence has turned this into one of Florida's most politically marginal areas. In 2004 Republican organizers brought out a lot of new voters, many of them Christian conservatives.

The 9th Congressional District of Florida covers part of the area north of St. Petersburg and north and east of Tampa. It includes the string of towns on the coast of Pasco County--Holiday, New Port Richey, Bayonet Point, Hudson. In Pinellas County to the south, the 9th includes Tarpon Springs, an old resort first settled by Greek sponge divers a century ago, the affluent neighborhoods of mid- and upper-level managers in East Lake, the young commuter families of Oldsmar, the bayside community of Safety Harbor and Clearwater. The district also includes the northern Tampa suburbs in Hillsborough County and much of the eastern part of the county, including part of strawberry-growing Plant City (named not for plants but for Tampa pioneer Henry B. Plant). The borders were drawn by Republican redistricters to produce a district that would elect a Republican. The district gave Jeb Bush a big margin in 2002 and voted 54% for George W. Bush in 2000 and 57% in 2004.

The congressman from the 9th District is Michael Bilirakis, a Republican first elected in 1982. He grew up near Pittsburgh; he served in the Air Force, and then worked his way through college, toiling in a steel mill. He also worked for the government in Washington and an aerospace contractor in Florida, then practiced law. He believes strongly that Americans can work their way up, with occasional government assistance (like the G.I. Bill that helped him through school). Originally a Democrat, he switched to the Republican Party in 1980, and in 1982, when this district was created, he won though the seat had been designed for a Democrat.

Bilirakis has a moderate record on economics and is more conservative on other issues. Early in his career, Bilirakis won a seat on the Commerce committee, and starting in 1995 he held one of the most potentially powerful chairmanships in Congress, that of the Health and Environment Subcommittee. He managed to retain it in 2001, despite House Republicans' six-year term limit, by arguing that it had been reconfigured to merely the Health Subcommittee and thus wasn't the same subcommittee any more. He kept the chair until January 2005, but he was passed over for chairman of the full committee in February 2004, when Billy Tauzin resigned his position, in favor of the less senior Joe Barton.

In 1993 and 1995, Bilirakis sponsored a bill which tried to make health insurance portable and to stop insurers from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions; it was put aside in 1994 in the debate over the Clinton health care plan, but something very like it was passed in 1996, known from its Senate sponsors as Kennedy-Kassebaum. He served on the Medicare Commission and was part of the majority that supported the Breaux-Thomas premium support plan; a version of that has been supported by George W. Bush and Bilirakis played a role in Medicare legislation. Bilirakis also sponsored a bill to provide a state-based prescription drug benefit for the poorest and sickest Medicare beneficiaries. This became the Republican party's plan, and again Bush supported something quite similar. Bilirakis supported the Dingell-Norwood HMO regulation bill, and was its only supporter placed on the conference committee by Speaker Dennis Hastert. In 2003 he worked to drop the few Medicare-covered prescription drugs from the formula used to calculate physicians' annual increases and sought cooperation from state agencies in an investigation of Medicaid fraud. He supported the 2003 Medicare/prescription drug bill and opposed reimportation of prescription drugs from Canada. In 2004 he questioned NIH's Roadmap priority-setting process and said the agency "lacks transparency"; he denounced NIH for allowing its scientists to have lucrative consulting contracts with pharmaceutical and biotech companies.

Bilirakis is also vice-chairman of the Veterans Committee. He sponsored a 1997 law to provide "forgotten widows" of veterans with a minimum annuity of $165 a month, and a 1999 law to enable severely disabled military retirees to collect retirement as well as disability benefits. For most of his congressional career, Bilirakis has backed a center to treat veterans with spinal cord injuries; the $17 million Tampa facility opened in February 2002. In 2003 he got approval of a bill allowing veterans to collect disability as well as retirement payments; it would be phased in for 10 years and limited to veterans with disabilities rated at 60% or more. In March 2004 he criticized the Veterans Affairs Department for testing a $472 million computer system at the Bay Pines VA hospital in St. Petersburg, the second largest veterans' hospital in the nation; in June, the department admitted it may never work. In seven Congresses, Bilirakis has introduced bills that would deny congressmen their pay if they fail to pass appropriations bills by the beginning of the fiscal year.

Bilirakis had no Democratic opponent in 1998 or 2000. In 2002, he was reelected 71%-29%. In early 2004 he said he would run for just one more term; he won the primary with 84% of the vote and had no Democratic opponent. In January 2005, his son, state Representative Gus Bilirakis, who is term-limited in 2006, said he would run to succeed his father; by June he had endorsements from Majority Whip Roy Blunt and National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Reynolds. In early 2005 former state Senator John Grant, who has support from religious conservatives, said he might run. Also mentioned as possible candidates were state Senator Victor Crist, former state Senator Jack Latvala, and former state House Speaker Johnnie Byrd.

Committees

• Energy & Commerce (3d of 31 R): Energy & Air Quality; Health; Telecommunications & the Internet.
• Veterans' Affairs (Vice Chmn. of 16 R): Oversight & Investigations (Chmn.).

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	5	0	13	18	90	59	100	92	81	100	--
2003	5	--	0	20	--	64	93	92	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	41%	--	59%		38%	--	62%
Social	30%	--	65%		9%	--	85%
Foreign	21%	--	77%		10%	--	86%
For National Journal's complete 2004 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 108th Congress (More Info)
1. Drilling in ANWR Y 2. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 3. Medicare/Rx Bill Y 4. Bar Overtime Pay Regs. N 5. DC School Vouchers Y 6. Ban Human Cloning Y		7. Restrict Gun Liability Y  8. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage Y 10. Fund Iraq War Y 11. Bar Cuba Embargo Funds N 12. Intelligence Reorg. Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2004 general	Michael Bilirakis (R)	unopposed
2004 primary	Michael Bilirakis (R)	44,579	84%
	Joseph Stanley (R)	8,189	16%
2002 general	Michael Bilirakis (R)	169,369	71%	$816,932
	Chuck Kalogianis (D)	67,623	29%	$307,568
Prior winning percentages: 2000 (82%); 1998 (100%); 1996 (69%); 1994 (100%); 1992 (59%); 1990 (58%); 1988 (100%); 1986 (71%); 1984 (79%); 1982 (51%)

2004 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 196,837 (57%) Kerry (D) 148,694 (43%)

2000 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 146,735 (54%) Gore (D) 124,242 (46%)

For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Ninth District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: R + 4
• District Size: 800 square miles
• Population in 2000: 639,296; 93.8% urban; 6.2% rural
• Median Household Income: $40,742; 8.6% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 17.6% blue collar; 68.0% white collar; 14.4% gray collar; 17.2% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 85.2% White, 3.5% Black, 1.8% Asian, 0.2% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 1.1% Two+ races, 0.1% Other, 7.9% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 13.3% German, 11.2% Irish, 9.2% English
• Click here for statewide demographic data.