Four potential 2012 GOP presidential candidates — Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney — will be in Manalapan for the conservative Club For Growth’s private annual winter meeting Thursday through Saturday at the Ritz-Carlton.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., who recently ruled out a 2012 run, and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and more than a dozen other congressional Republicans will also be on hand.

The event is closed to the media.

Club For Growth Action released a radio ad today that criticizes Gov. Charlie Crist for his plan to buy U.S. Sugar land in the name of Everglades restoration. Club for Growth PAC has endorsed Crist’s Republican U.S. Senate primary rival, Marco Rubio.

Script of the ad after the jump.

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UPDATE: First Democratic ad, released in April, is here

In what could be the first television ad of the 2010 U.S. Senate Republican primary, Club for Growth, the conservative group that helped take down the Republican candidate in an upstate New York Congressional race, has unveiled a new television spot aimed at Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, who is facing a primary challenge from former House Speaker Marco Rubio.

The club has not officially picked sides in the race, but this is clearly the strongest signal of several in recent months that they favor Rubio. The group could provide Rubio a needed boost in fundraising against Crist.

The group said the 30-second spot “will air soon on Florida television stations.”

Fact check after the jump.

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UPDATE: A NRSC Republican called to let us know that this isn’t really news, particularly as it relates to the Crist-Rubio race. Cornyn liked Crist’s conservative credentials (anti-abortion, pro-gun) and also that that the committee wouldn’t have to put resources into the race because Crist was such a prolific fundraiser, the source said. Essentially, Cornyn never planned to spend money on the Florida race, particularly not in a primary.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, who recruited Gov. Charlie Crist to run for Florida’s open Senate seat next year, said today that the National Senatorial Campaign Committee will not put money into the primary Republican battle with former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio.

“We will not spend money in a contested primary,” Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told ABC News .

The news comes after Crist’s lost his third major fundraiser to scandal in 10 months.

Crist still enjoys a monster fundraising advantage over Rubio, but Club for Growth President Chris Chocola telling reporters his group could throw its support behind Rubio.