Florida — 12th District

For his first campaign ad against longtime GOP Rep. Gus Bilirakis, Democrat Darren McAuley took to the skies. “As an Air Force colonel and flight surgeon, I’ve spent a lot of time up here flying into combat areas, helping wounded airmen and soldiers in battle,” says McAuley, a combat veteran who serves in the Air National Guard as Florida’s air surgeon, from an airplane cockpit. ”Even from up here, you can see the damage that Gus Bilirakis has done in Congress: skyrocketing costs and utility rates, cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. "The ad, set to run on MSNOW and Meta, represents an opening salvo in McAuley’s bid to unseat one of Tampa Bay’s longest-serving incumbents. For much of his career, Bilirakis (whose father also served the region in Congress) held a ruby-red seat centered in Citrus and Hernando counties. But Florida’s mid-decade redistricting shifted Bilirakis’ district lines south , adding parts of western Hillsborough County, including urban Tampa neighborhoods like Seminole…