With CPAC Looming, Mike McCalister Stresses his Conservative Credentials

Mike McCalister, a retired Army colonel and a businessman who is running for the Republican nomination to take on Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in 2012, is stressing his conservative credentials. Next week, McCalister will clash with three of his main rivals -- former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, and businessman Craig Miller -- at a forum and straw poll in Orlando which will be part of the American Conservative Unions (ACU) Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Florida meeting. The CPAC event will be held on Friday, Sept. 23.

McCalister, who took more than 10 percent in the 2010 Republican gubernatorial primary, is spending this week rallying conservatives in preparation for CPAC. Besides attending a tea party event in Manatee County earlier this week, McCalister attempted to frame what the 2012 election cycle would be about.

If 2010 was a battle to define the Republican Party, then 2012 will be even more important to define what being conservative means, McCalsiter posted on his Twitter account late Tuesday.