Pinellas Democratic congressional candidates Nina Hayden and Jessica Ehrlich were introduced in an intriguing manner recently at the Tiger Bay Club.

Invoking the Old Testament, University of Tampa political science professor Rich Piper, an active Pinellas county Democratic party member, wondered if “Goliath” (aka GOP incumbent Bill Young) would be vulnerable “to the slingshot of a dynamic, youthful but experienced female challenger?”

Or, he posited, would the winner of the Democratic primary prove to be a “proverbial lamb led to the slaughter this November?”

The odds against either candidate dethroning Goliath, most observers believe, are formidable.

That’s despite the fact that voter registration in CD-13 (slightly reconfigured after redistricting) has become increasingly Democratic. And that Young, 81, was first elected to represent Pinellas in Congress four years before either Ehrlich or Hayden were even born.

In Washington this year, a number of octogenarians in Congress are in serious re-election trouble. Most famous of these is Manhattan Democrat Charlie Rangel, who, like Young, was first elected in 1970. Redistricting has put him in a more Hispanic neighborhood, and he is struggling in the Democratic primary taking place next week.

In San Francisco’s East Bay, 80-year-old Pete Stark is considered to be extremely vulnerable in his general election against a fellow Democrat this November. Another 80-year-old, GOP U.S. Senator Richard Lugar, lost to a Tea Party candidate in his primary race in Indiana last month.

For the last decade or so, the question of whether Young would retire or run for another term has come up every two years, never more than after the 2008 election, when Barack Obama won Florida and Pinellas County.

According to former USF Political Science professor Daryl Paulson, Young was definitely ready to call it quits at that point. But Republicans in Washington, led by the Tea Party and resistance toward President Obama, began to see a path in late 2009 to take back the House, and that meant asking Young to stick around for at least one more race.

That race was against Charlie Justice, who had been an up-and-coming legislator representing Tampa and St. Petersburg in the state Senate. But Justice could not convince anyone that he was a serious contender, and he struggled to fundraise.

That doesn’t seem to be a problem so far with Ehrlich, who raised over $100,000 in the first quarter of this year. That pales next to Young’s $400,000 plus, but there’s no question that she’s getting the love from a multitude of D.C. groups, such as Emily’s List.

Hayden hasn’t raised nearly that much, and in fact for a week was disqualified from the race after an error in filing her paperwork to run. The Maryland native has seemed to be in a hurry after winning a seat on the Pinellas County School Board in 2008. But instead of running for re-election two years later, she alienated some Democrats by taking on the formidable Jack Latvala in a state Senate seat that no other Democrat had challenged. She lost badly, and as she now runs for Congress, she’s aware of the perception that she’s too ambitious.

“It’s up to the candidate to decide when their time is, and I don’t mind people commenting and having their opinion,” she told CL at a campaign kickoff fundraiser held on her behalf last month at the Hilton at Carillon in St. Petersburg.

“They’re more than welcome to their opinion, but for me it’s a personal decision that has to be made.” Hayden says that she’s an advocate for the community, and there was no one “locally that was stepping up to the plate that was going to run for this Congressional seat. And I believe I’m a viable candidate.”

Jessica Ehrlich is local, having graduated from Shorecrest Preparatory School, an elite school in the old Northeast part of St. Pete. She then left the area to attend Vanderbilt University in Nashville and later law school at SMU in suburban Dallas. After working as a judicial intern to U.S. District Court Judge Elizabeth Kovachevich in Tampa, she assisted her father Charles’ law practice in St. Pete. She then spent two years on Capitol Hill, first working for then South Florida GOP Congressman Clay Shaw on the Social Security Subcommittee of the Committee on Ways and Means, and then moving on to serve as counsel for Massachusetts Democrat Stephen Lynch on the Financial Services Committee.

She has been relentless in attacking Young for being out of touch with the district, specifically targeting his votes for the House GOP budget plan that bears the imprimatur of Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan, the Budget Committee chairman. That budget includes controversial reforms to programs like Medicare, which Ehrlich has seized upon to portray Young as Ryan’s much older doppelganger.

“He’s voting in lockstep with this rigid, partisan agenda that is just divisive and is not moving us forward,” she said after an appearance with House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer at her campaign office in May.