Bill White (born December 17, 1945) is an American lawyer who served as Public Defender for Florida's Fourth Judicial Circuit, which covers Clay, Duval, and Nassau Counties.
In 1974, his final year of law school, he accepted an internship with the Public Defenders Office in Jacksonville under Lou Frost.
Issues during the race included Party affiliation (White was running as a Democrat, Shirk as a Republican), and the relative low political profile of the Public Defender Office.
But when the final results came in from heavily Republican Clay and Nassau Counties Shirk had pulled ahead by 13,490 votes and White conceded.
[4][5] Following his election loss, White assumed a position at Communities in Schools Jacksonville, a non-profit educational resource for underprivileged children.