Advertisement

Rep. Dana Young of Tampa looks to make her mark as majority leader

 
Florida House Majority Leader Rep. Dana Young, R-Tampa, right, talking with Rep. Charles McBurney, R-Jacksonville, last week, is the first Republican woman to serve in that capacity. She’s known for being smart on policy and political strategy.
Florida House Majority Leader Rep. Dana Young, R-Tampa, right, talking with Rep. Charles McBurney, R-Jacksonville, last week, is the first Republican woman to serve in that capacity. She’s known for being smart on policy and political strategy.
Published March 12, 2015

TALLAHASSEE

Dana Duden was a congressional staffer for a Democratic representative and scion to one of the party's most prominent Florida families when she first heard Ronald Reagan speak — and it turned her political ideology on its head.

It was the early 1980s, her second date with Matt Young, the man she'd later marry, and they had tickets to the president's State of the Union address.

"I can just remember sitting there in the very, very small chamber that is the House of Representatives and watching Ronald Reagan and listening to him and just thinking, you know, this is somebody that I want to follow. This is someone that I believe in," said now-Florida Rep. Dana Young. "I'm getting chills now."

Today, Young is coming into her own as a rising GOP star. The 50-year-old legislator represents Tampa in the Florida House, part of a strong bloc of Tampa Bay leadership in the Capitol.

She is the second Republican woman and just the third woman from either major party to be named majority leader in a chamber that's never elected a female speaker.

"Her rise to power is very, very impressive," said Rep. Janet Cruz, D-Tampa, who's slated to be the next Democratic leader in the House. "Sometimes you get a feeling that it could be more of a man's world than it is a woman's world in the Legislature."

Since her first election in 2010, Young has taken on key bills, including one that shook up port regulations her very first term, an unusually high-profile piece of legislation for a freshman lawmaker. She keeps a photo and pen from the bill signing with Gov. Rick Scott at Port of Tampa in her office at the Capitol.

This session, the only legislation Young has sponsored is a controversial package of gambling reforms that would upend gaming in the state, the cornerstone of which is 316 pages long and highly technical.

It fits her reputation as a lawmaker who's policy smart and politically strategic. She's adept at figuring out whose support she'll need and staying two steps ahead to get that support, said Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, who was elected to the House alongside Young and now represents the same district in the Senate.

That knack might be thanks to her career as a land-use attorney in Tampa, which she describes as even more ruthlessly political than the Legislature. She tells stories about people who got so angry with her at public meetings that they threw things at her and shot spit balls.

"At least here, when we're debating, nobody does those things," she said. "It makes this look very calm."

Young's roots are in the Tallahassee political establishment. She grew up here and went to Florida State University for political science before moving to Washington, D.C., and eventually earning a law degree from the University of Virginia.

Her father, Don Duden, was assistant secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection. Her uncle, Gene Hodges, served eight terms in the House, earning a reputation for quickly moving bills. Her grandfather, W. Randolph Hodges, was Senate president in 1961 and '62.

"My entire educational life was spent not only in public schools here in Leon County, but around the political process," Young said. "I never thought I would be in the Legislature, not in a million years, but when I got here, I realized that it was very comfortable for me."

The Hodges, like most Floridians at the time, were allied with the Democratic Party. But Young is a self-described "hard-core conservative Republican."

She says President Barack Obama has done one thing she agrees with in the White House: getting two Portuguese water dogs, the same breed as her pets Winger and Splash, but she's quick to say she had hers first.

Despite her uncompromisingly right-wing politics, she's allied herself with Democrats, particularly those from Tampa Bay. Together, they form an increasingly powerful bloc in Tallahassee.

With Young as majority leader for two years and a likely contender for top committee positions in 2017, Cruz rising to the helm of the Democratic minority and Rep. Richard Corcoran, R-Land O'Lakes, next in line for the speakership, local leaders hope to see favorable bills and budget appropriations in the coming years.

"For years, our delegation was somewhat fragmented, tending to divide along party lines, but I think you've seen a drastic change in the last four years," Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn said. "All the pieces are in place for us to be really well-positioned in Tallahassee this session."

Despite being uncontested in every state election since her first in 2010, Young has managed to raise more than $1 million, spending $246,811 in a general election bid in November.

She, like most other lawmakers, has started to fill her campaign coffers for the 2016 race, her last before hitting term limits for the House. But if she has political plans past November 2018, she's not telling.

"Voters and God willing, I've got four more years here in the House, and that's a long time," she said. "I haven't made any decisions yet."

If her first four years are any indication, the majority leader is poised for a bright future, according to Brandes.

"I think whatever Dana Young does," he said, "she'll be incredibly successful."

Correction: An earlier version of this story inaccurately said Dana Young was the first Republican woman named majority leader in the Florida House.

Contact Michael Auslen at mauslen@tampabay.com. Follow @MichaelAuslen.