Defense attorney and former prosecutor Betsy Young (Democrat) is challenging incumbent Republican Ed Brodsky to be the State Attorney for the 12th Judicial Circuit in the November general election.
Youngis a graduate of the Florida State University College of Law. She previously served as an Assistant State Attorney. Young has more than two decades of experience.
Young lives in Lakewood Ranch with her husband Jeff, a native of Venice, FL, and the couples' two daughters, who attend Southeast High School and Braden River Elementary School, where Young is a PTO member and serves on the School Advisory Council. She is also a mentor with Take Stock in Children.
Young is the former Vice President of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys Sarasota Chapter and an active member of the Sarasota/Manatee County Bar Association and Florida Association of Women Lawyers.
Young promises to modernize the State Attorney’s Office and says that doing so will reduce the financial burden on taxpayers, rehabilitate nonviolent offenders so they become productive members of society, and target serial offenders and those who prey on vulnerable citizens.
Young has criticized Brodsky's office on numerous fronts, including the handling of the death of Sheena Morris in a Bradenton Beach hotel room in 2009. Morris's family andother criminal justice expertshave advocated reopening the case, in which law enforcement decided the young woman hanged herself on New Year's Day of 2009.
In Brodsky, Young will challenge a politically powerful public official capable of amassing an enormous campaign war chest. The hand-chosen successor of former state attorney Earl Moreland, Brodsky has close ties to some of the most powerful political forces in the region and has been accused of showing political favoritism.
However, Young has managed to amass an impressive campaign war chest herself, having raised over $113,000 as of the last reporting deadline. That is obviously much less than Brosky's $174,000, however, beyond the threshold of being able to mount an effective campaign for a race this size.
Editor's note: This article originally stated that Young is a veteran of more than 150 jury trials, based on a press release issued by her campaign, a claim that turned out to be false.
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