Republican U.S. Senate candidate Connie Mack began the first of a weeklong bus tour Saturday, stoking the college crowds at tailgate events starting in Gainesville, where the the candidate's Gators were playing the Kentucky Wildcats and ending in Tallahassee, where the Seminoles play the Clemson Tigers.
The trip is one of three bus tours the campaign plans in an attempt to drum up support from Republican-leaning conservative counties of North and Central Florida, the one region of the state where polls show Mack leading Democrat incumbent, Bill Nelson.
In Tallahassee, Mack stopped at the Romney/Ryan tent at Doak Campbell Stadium Saturday evening, where Josh Romney was the celebrity of the moment. With a loudspeaker blaring excerpts from his Dad's stump speech, Josh stood for an hour mugging for photos with co-eds and fans dressed in garnet and gold.
Mack dismissed the recent polls, including a poll by the Herald/Times, which show him trailing Nelson by between 8 and 14 percentage points. He said his internal polls show the race much closer.
His reasoning: the 11-12 percent undecideds are "Republican leaning, so we think we'll get a large share of that."
Mack, who refused to debate Weldon and other primary challengers, has now found himself on the defensive in his attempts to get Nelson to agree to more than one debate.
"I'm sure he's going: 'ah, I've got a lot of money in the bank and some of the polling shows me up and I don't want to make a mistake,'' he said. "I think the people of the State of Florida say, we want to know what the differences are all about and a debate is the way to do it."
He says that Nelson shouldn't treat him as Mack treated his opponents in the primary because "we're in a much more competitive race." In the summer, Mack's competitors, he said were "35 points behind us."
Photos: Connie Mack stops to take photo with Lexie Langley, 11, of Tallahassee; Josh Romney poses with FSU co-eds
Little Lordling Cornelius McGillicuddy IV ...
Is it any surprise that ordinary folks recognize that the only reason he got to be the Republican nominee is due to who his daddy was?
Folks are so tired of the children of politicians feeling entitled to succeed to positions of power, as though they are some ruling noble class, that we ain't real interested in voting for them.
Sadly, this is one of the typical ways that Republicans lose winnable elections ... even against the likes of Senator Milquetoast, that is, Bill "Vanilla Pudding" Nelson.
Posted by: whasup | September 22, 2012 at 09:55 PM
Of course Mack is hitting college campuses he loves scantily clad petite girls, chicken wings and beer.
Posted by: Dougie | September 23, 2012 at 01:23 PM