It’ll be more of a candidate forum than a back-and-forth debate this month when the Florida Federation of Republican Women hosts the first meeting of Republican U.S. Senate candidates since Rep. Connie Mack, R-Cape Coral, got into the race.
Mack, former appointed Sen. George LeMieux and businessman Mike McCalister are scheduled to participate in the Feb. 19 event in Tallahassee. The three are vying to run against Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson in November.
Candidates will appear together and make brief opening statements, then appear individually for 15 to 20 minutes apiece to answer questions from the audience and a moderator, said Federation 3rd VP Kim Carroll. While one candidate is answering questions, the others will be offstage and won’t hear the exchange with the audience, Caroll said. The candidates will then appear together at the end for a brief wrap-up.
“We don’t want to set it up so it’s a bash-my-fellow-candidate debate,” said Carroll, who said debates with all the candidates on stage together tend to devolve into “name-calling sessions” that distract from the issues.
Former Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse CEO and former National Restaurant Association Chairman Craig Miller is leaving the crowded Republican U.S. Senate race and says he’ll run instead for a new coastal congressional district that’s expected to include parts of Volusia, Flagler, St. Johns and Putnam counties.
Miller recently snagged the endorsement of fellow restaurateur Herman Cain for the Senate race.
Miller leaves without endorsing any of the other GOP Senate hopefuls — former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner of Boca Raton, U.S. Rep. Connie Mack of Cape Coral, former appointed Sen. George LeMieux and businessman Mike McCalister.
“There are several very qualified candidates in the U.S. Senate race to represent our party, some with more name recognition and resources than our campaign. Therefore, I have chosen to shift my focus to serving the people of the new Coastal District,” Miller said in a statement released this morning.
“Having grown up on the Intracoastal Waterway and having spent a lifetime working in the Hospitality and Tourism industry, including opening and operating businesses in Volusia and St. John Counties, this new District offers me a unique opportunity to serve.”
While his rivals have yet to launch a TV campaign in Florida before the Jan. 31 primary, Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney is airing his fourth ad in the state (three in English and one Spanish-language spot).
This spot counters criticism from Newt Gingrich and others of Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital by mentioning three successful businesses Bain helped — Staples, Sports Authority and Steel Dynamics — and by likening the Bain critics to President Obama.
“We expected the Obama administration to put free markets on trial,” says the ad’s narrator, who then quotes an editorial from The Wall Street Journal (no great fan of Romney’s) saying the Republican Bain critics “are embarrassing themselves.”
U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, R-Cape Coral, raised $758,395 in the fourth quarter of 2011 for his Republican U.S. Senate bid and, thanks to leftover money from his House races, has $917,926 in cash on hand, his campaign announced this morning.
Mack got into the race at the end of October.
In a new twist on the expectations game, Mack’s campaign announced last week — after the quarter had ended — that it had set a goal of raising about $500,000 in the fourth quarter. That allowed Mack spokesman David James to tell supporters today that the campaign had “smashed our previous expectations.”
To put Mack’s numbers in some perspective, former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner of Boca Raton raised $535,000 in the third quarter for the Senate race and former appointed Sen. George LeMieux‘s top quarter was a $951,000 haul between April 1 and June 30.
Hasner and LeMieux haven’t announced fourth-quarter fundraising numbers yet. Nor has Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, who raised $1.9 million during the third quarter of 2011.
Hasner wants 10 debates of 90-minute duration with GOP Senate rivals.
Former state House majority leader Adam Hasner of Boca Raton has sent a letter to U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, R-Cape Coral, and former appointed Sen. George LeMieux calling for a series of 10 debates around Florida in the crowded GOP Senate primary.
Despite strong support from national movement conservatives, Hasner has lagged in the polls behind not only Mack and LeMieux but businessman Mike McCalister and in the same single-digit neighborhood as businessman Craig Miller. Hasner addressed his letter only to Mack and LeMieux, but the letter says he hopes the Republican Party of Florida will invite McCalister and Miller as well.
The Republicans are vying for the right to challenge Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson in November.
Launching his campaign by deriding rival Bill Nelson as one of President Obama’s “lockstep liberals,” Republican U.S. Senate contender Connie Mack is expecting to be picketed by what his office staff called ”loony liberals” Thursday.
Mack’s namesake father punctured Democratic opponent Buddy Mackay 23 years ago with the phrase, “Hey Buddy, you’re liberal.” The son’s days-old campaign seems to be sticking to a similar script.
Southwest Florida supporters of the Occupy Wall Street movement plan to protest at 1 p.m. today outside Mack’s Cape Coral office. But once Mack staffers got hold of the rally’s electronic sign-up sheet, they fired out a press release, tying the demonstration to MoveOn.org, the left-leaning activist group founded by billionaire George Soros.
“It’s appalling that George Soros and the loony liberals of MoveOn.org are protecting Bill Nelson by staging a sit-in protest at Congressman Mack’s office,” said David James, Mack’s deputy campaign manager. ”Three days after Connie Mack entered the race for U.S. Senate, these leftists are scared of the Mack candidacy and Connie’s message of freedom, security and prosperity. Florida has had enough of the loony left and will bring an end to their big government, big taxation and big spending agenda next November.”
Polls show Mack is the frontrunner in five-person Republican field. At least one survey also shows him with enough current support to knock off Nelson, if Mack wins the GOP primary.
A new Public Policy Polling survey also shows Mack well out front in the Republican contest. It also examines the potency of name identification, but doesn’t attribute all of Mack’s success to having a well-known monicker.
The poll found Mack’s name is recognized by 57 percent of Republican voters in Florida, about double his nearest rival, short-term Senate-appointee George LeMieux. Others in the race were far back.
But the survey also found that voters familiar with the other candidates, still liked Mack best.
“Name recognition is certainly an important part of the equation, but even when you account for that Mack’s well ahead,” PPP concluded. “And he has strong numbers across the ideological lines of the GOP, getting 44 percent with ‘very conservative’ voters, 43 percent with ’somewhat conservative’ ones, and 32 percent with moderates.”
Tarring Democratic opponent Bill Nelson as one of President Obama’s “lockstep liberals”, Republican U.S. Rep. Connie Mack said Tuesday that Floridians are looking for a change in the U.S. Senate.
“It’s pretty clear to me that this country, our country, is moving in the wrong directions,” Mack said in a conference call with reporters from his Fort Myers hometown.
Mack made his candidacy official Monday night in an appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox-TV show. Mack, first elected to Congress in 2004, is the fifth Republican in the race to unseat Nelson, who is seeking his third term.
Mack is looking to win the same seat held by his father and namesake, former Republican U.S. Sen. Connie Mack. His dad defeated Democrat Buddy MacKay in 1988 after taunting him with the phrase, “Hey Buddy, you’re liberal.” And on Tuesday, the political apple didn’t fall far from the tree.
“Bill Nelson has become one of Barack Obama’s leading guys in the United States Senate,” Mack said, deriding his Democratic rival for supporting the president’s push on health care, stimulus spending, and energy cap-and-trade legislation.
Nelson is among the “lockstep liberals in Washington” the president depends on to advance his agenda, Mack said. The Republican contender, however, disputed that he, like his father, is looking to win by demonizing liberals.
“It’s not an attempt to demonize,” Mack said. “It’s to point out the differences.”
When those close to Mack confirmed a few weeks ago that he was planning to enter the race, the congressman immediately became the favorite, according to polls.
A Quinnipiac University survey earlier this month showed Mack with a formidable lead over the four Republicans already in the race. A Rasmussen Reports poll also showed Mack could be trouble for Nelson, with the congressman favored by 43 percent of voters to 39 percent for the Democrat. The survey of 500 likely voters had a margin-of-error of plus-or-minus 4.5 percent.
Republican Connie Mack is shaping up as big trouble — not only for his fellow GOP contenders for the U.S. Senate nomination, but two-term Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson, a poll shows Friday.
Mack, a Cape Coral congressman, is the favorite of 43 percent of Florida voters, to 39 percent for Nelson, according to the survey of 500 likely voters conducted Thursday by Rasmussen Reports. The poll has a margin-of-error of plus-or-minus 4.5 percent.
The survey also shows Nelson holding comfortable leads over other Republican contenders, former U.S. Senate-appointee George LeMieux and former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner. A Quinnipiac University poll released last week showed Mack holding a formidable lead over the four GOP candidates already in the U.S. Senate race.
Mack’s father, who shares the same name, represented Florida in the U.S. Senate from 1989 to his retirement in 2001, when he was succeeded by Nelson.
U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, R-Cape Coral, has become the instant frontrunner in the GOP Senate primary and runs virtually even with Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, a new Quinnipiac University poll says.
“The entrance of Congressman Connie Mack into the Senate race changes what had been shaping up as an easy reelection for Sen. Bill Nelson into a tough fight that the incumbent could lose,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “The fact that Mack is essentially tied with Nelson, who has been a statewide political figure for two decades, should set off warning bells at Democratic headquarters.”
Mack, whose office announced he would enter the race Oct. 26, gets 32 percent of GOP primary support in a poll taken Oct. 31 to Nov. 7. Placing a distant second is former appointed Sen. George LeMieux at 9 percent, followed by businessman Mike McCalister at 6 percent and 2 percent apiece for former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner and former restaurant CEO Craig Miller.
Former appointed Sen. George LeMieux has announced the Palm Beach County leaders for his Republican U.S. Senate campaign. Veteran Palm Beach County Commissioner Karen Marcus, state Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, and former state Rep. Carl Domino of Jupiter are on the team.
One of LeMieux’s main GOP primary rivals is former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner of Boca Raton. LeMieux has Boca backing from city Vice Mayor Susan Haynie, businesswoman Yvonne Boice and Alex Berry, the co-founder of the Palm Beach County Tea Party’s Boca Raton chapter.
Read the LeMieux campaign’s press release after the jump….
U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, who worked as a Capitol Hill staffer for former Sen. Connie Mack III in the 1990s, says he’s leaning toward supporting late-entering U.S. Rep. Connie Mack IV, R-Cape Coral, in the 2012 GOP Senate primary.
“Having worked for Connie’s dad, having worked with Connie closely, I’d probably be leaning heavily toward Connie at this point. But let him get in the race and let him get his feet wet first,” Rooney said today.
Rooney, who once considered entering the 2006 GOP Senate primary against a weak Katherine Harris, said he was also asked about entering the 2012 contest because of underwhelming polling numbers by GOP candidates George LeMieux, Adam Hasner, Mike McCalister and Craig Miller. Rooney, who has three young children, said he wasn’t willing to take on the statewide fundraising and campaigning demands associated with a Senate run.
Some elbows are already being directed at U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, R-Cape Coral, as he gets ready to enter the crowded 2012 Republican Senate primary.
Former appointed U.S. Sen. George LeMieux welcomed Mack as “a friend,” but also slammed Mack for supporting earmarks and congressional pay raises.
Former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner‘s communications director Douglass Mayer called four-term House member Mack “another Washington incumbent.”
After announcing in March he wouldn’t run, Mack has decided to enter the Republican primary against LeMieux, Hasner and businessmen Craig Miller and Mike McCalister. the four declared GOP candidates have been plagued by underwhelming poll numbers and fundraising as they vie to challenge Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson in 2012.
Read statements from LeMieux, the Hasner campaign and McCalister after the jump….
With none of the Republican candidates showing impressive polling or fundraising numbers, a Mack aide told The St. Petersburg Times late Wednesday that the congressman would enter the race.
Republicans are trying to field a candidate to challenge two-term Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.
Mack, the son of a former Senator and great-grandson of a Hall of Fame baseball legend with the same name, would bring a well-known name and presumed fundraising connections to the race. But Mack has occasionally run afoul of the GOP’s conservative base, most notably in opposing an Arizona-style crackdown on illegal immigrants.
Mack cited family concerns in passing up the Senate race in March, then endorsed state Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, in the primary. But Haridopolos dropped out during the summer.
Former appointed Sen. George LeMieux, former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner and businessmen Craig Miller and Mike McCalister have spent months on the campaign trail, but none has built a strong following in the polls.
Reports this month showed all of the Republicans far behind Nelson in fundraising. Nelson raised $2 million in the last quarter and has about $7.5 million in his campaign account.
LeMieux’s fundraising plunged from $951,558 in the second quarter to $402,916 in the third quarter. He has about $1 million in the bank. Hasner raised $535,000 in the last quarter and has $786,000 on hand.
Plant City businessman Mike McCalister raised about $71,000 during the third quarter for his Republican U.S. Senate bid, his campaign said today. That places McCalister — who served 33 years in the Army National Guard, Army Reserves and active duty and retired with the rank of colonel — financially far behind his three main GOP primary rivals.
Federal Election Commission reports were due Saturday but have not yet been posted on the FEC site.
Former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner raised $535,000 in the quarter. Former appointed Sen. George LeMieux collected $402,916 and former Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse CEO Craig Miller raised $226,000.
McCalister’s total came from nearly 2,000 donors, consultant Buzz Jacobs said.
The GOP candidates together raised less than incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, who raised nearly $2 million in the quarter.
Nelson: $1.9 million quarter; $7.5 million on hand
Former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner of Boca Raton raised more campaign cash in the third quarter than GOP Senate primary rival George LeMieux — but neither one comes close to incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.
Hasner raised $535,000 between July 1 and Sept. 30 and has $786,000 in cash on hand, his campaign said this evening. LeMieux, a former appointed Senator, raised $402,916 in the quarter and has a little more than $1 million in the bank.
Nelson, seeking a third term next year, said earlier this week that he raised nearly $2 million in the last quarter and has about $7.5 million in cash on hand.
A third Republican candidate, former Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse CEO Craig Miller, tonight announced he raised $226,000 in the quarter and has $145,000 cash on hand.
Also seeking the GOP nomination is Plant City businessman Mike McCalister, who has not yet announced his third-quarter fundraising totals. Federal Election Commission reports are due Saturday.
Hasner’s latest $535,000 haul compares to $565,439 he raised in the second quarter.
LeMieux’s third-quarter total is less than half the $951,558 he raised in the previous quarter.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate George LeMieux rolled out a plan to fix the nation’s economy Wednesday — dubbing it his ‘four freedoms plan.”
The historic roots of the “four freedoms” concept goes back to Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt, who pledged to defend the constitution’s guaranteed freedoms of speech and worship, and freedom from fear and want.
LeMieux, engulfed in a tough, four-way GOP primary, is adding to the list the freedom to work, pursue the American dream, and safeguard freedom from foreign dependence and debt. Some of his proposals mirror those aired by Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann and others in the Republican presidential field.
“After faith and family, the most important thing a person can have is a job,” LeMieux said.
LeMieux’s approach would reduce federal spending to 2007 levels, which he said could help balance the budget within two years.
He would slash the corporate tax rate by almost one-third, to 25 percent, while repealing the federal health care overhaul pushed by President Obama and tough federal banking regulations that he said are stifling lending.
LeMieux also said his deficit-reduction plan will take on Social Security and Medicare.
Among the changes he would advance: gradually raising to age 69 the retirement age for those now under age 55 and impose so-called means testing that would reduce Social Security payments to wealthier retirees.
“We are losing jobs today because of our debt,” LeMieux said.
Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson‘s campaign says it will report nearly $2 million in contributions for the third quarter when it files a Federal Election Commission report later this week.
The Nelson campaign also says it has $7.5 million in cash on hand for the two-term incumbent’s 2012 reelection bid. It says the third-quarter haul came from 5,133 individual donors.
Republicans hoping to unseat Nelson — former appointed Sen. George LeMieux, former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner of Boca Raton, businessmen Craig Miller and Mike McCalister — have not yet announced their fundraising totals for the July 1-Sept. 30 period.
Republican Senate hopeful Adam Hasner of Boca Raton further bolstered his conservative cred by landing the endorsement of the Family Research Council Action PAC, a national social-conservative organization that traces its roots to Focus on the Family’s James Dobson.
“Representative Hasner is a strong conservative who will work to protect the freedom of Americans by advocating for a limited government. He is pro-life, and consistent in his support of the traditional values that are the bedrock of our society,” said PAC Chairman Tony Perkins.
Hasner is running in a GOP primary against former appointed Sen. George LeMieux, Plant City businessman Mike McCalister and former Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse CEO Craig Miller. The winner will face Democratic incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson.
Hasner won last week’s Florida Conservative Political Action Conference Senate straw poll and has scored endorsements from FreedomWorks, Concerned Women for America and other national conservatives but so far has remained in single digits in polls.
Former state House Speaker Larry Cretul of Ocala has endorsed Republican Adam Hasner‘s U.S. Senate bid.
Cretul joins former Speaker Allen Bense in backing Hasner, who faces former appointed Sen. George LeMieux and businessmen Craig Miller and Mike McCalister in the GOP primary to challenge Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.
Says Cretul: “I’m endorsing Adam because he is the Republican Party’s best choice to defeat Senator Nelson and take a mainstream conservative message to Washington. During his service in the Florida House Adam built an impressive record and was a forceful spokesman for the principles and ideas of our Party – even when it wasn’t popular. Adam is a fighter and the only candidate in the race with a consistent, limited-government record that voters can trust to be a reliable alternative to the agenda we see coming out of Washington today.”
Hasner, a former state House Majority Leader, has also snagged endorsements from current Majority Leader Carlos Lopez-Cantera of Miami, state Reps. Dennis Baxley and Scott Plakon and state Sens. Alan Hays and Anitere Flores.
New Florida polls by Mason-Dixon Polling Research for Ron Sachs Communications show President Obama with a 56 percent disapproval rating and losing a hypothetical race to Republican Mitt Romney while Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson holds a big lead over his potential GOP rivals.
In the presidential poll released Thursday, 41 percent of Floridians approve of Obama’s job performance and 56 percent disapprove. Romney defeats Obama by a 51-to-43 percent margin. Given the poll’s 4 percent margin of error, Obama is in a virtual tie with Texas Gov. Rick Perry (Perry up 46-45) and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann (Obama ahead 46-44).
Among Republicans, Romney leads with 28 percent, followed by Perry at 21 percent and Bachmann at 13 percent.
Nelson: double-digit lead over GOP candidates
In the Senate race, Mason-Dixon finds 52 percent of Republicans undecided. Among announced candidates, former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner of Boca Raton leads with 8 percent and former appointed Sen. George LeMieux has 7 percent. U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, who isn’t running, leads the GOP pack at 14 percent with U.S. Rep. Allen West, who ruled out a run last week, garnering 11 percent.
In a hypothetical general election race, Nelson defeats LeMieux by a 49-to-34 percent margin and beats Hasner 45-to-34.
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