Challengers Line Up For Sen. Bill Nelson's Seat
TAMPA (CBS4) - Now that the Florida Legislative session has come to an end, several prominent state Republicans are lining up support to challenge U.S. Senator Bill Nelson next year.
On Saturday, Florida Senate president Mike Haridopolos visited Tampa where he addressed the Hillsborough County Republicans. His two rivals for the Republican nomination, former state Rep. Adam Hasner and former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, also attended the dinner and worked the crowd.
Haridopolos kept his remarks limited to what he's doing in his current job.
"If you like what we've done so far -- spending less, taxing less, reforming education, reforming pensions, reforming the broken Medicaid system -- you ain't seen nothing yet," Haridopolos said. "The best days in Florida are ahead of ourselves, and we're going to go right back to work tomorrow to make sure that next year we'll do even more to stimulate jobs, stimulate opportunity."
But LeMieux, who was appointed by then-Gov. Charlie Crist to fill the remaining 16 months of Sen. Mel Martinez's term, said before the dinner that the Legislature didn't go far enough to advance Gov. Rick Scott's conservative agenda.
"There were some good things that were done in the session, but obviously there were some things that fell short. They cut corporate taxes, but they only cut them a little. They didn't do enough on immigration. I think that Governor Scott had a bold agenda and I think the Legislature supported it to some extent, but not as much as they should have," said LeMieux, who served as chief of staff under Crist.
Hasner said he went to sleep hours before the Legislature ended its session and didn't weigh in on what was accomplished -- or not accomplished. He said he's focused on federal issues, like the national debt, federal spending, foreign policy in the Middle East and North Africa, the recent killing of Osama bin Laden and other issues facing Washington.
"Those are the issues people want to talk about. And I think as I go around the state, they want to hear more about what are my views on that than what are my views on what happened in Tallahassee during the legislative session," Hasner said. "I don't think what happens in Tallahassee is going to dictate the 2012 election."
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