Hasner Takes Aim at LeMieux on Backing Obama Jobs Act

On Tuesday, with U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner headed to testify to the U.S. Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee about the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, the team behind former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner hammered former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, one of the authors of the bill. Both Hasner and LeMieux are in a crowded Republican primary to see which Republican will emerge to take on Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson.

Calling the bill "mini-TARP," the Hasner team looked to remind conservative Republican primary voters that LeMieux was one of two Republicans -- the other being then-U.S. Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio -- to back the measure. Hasners camp forwarded a video clip in which President Barack Obama thanked the two Republicans.

"Senator LeMieux might like to pretend the 16 months he spent in Washington are the definition of conservative principles in action, but his voting record tells another story," said Doug Mayer, a spokesman for Hasner, on Tuesday. "He not only broke party ranks and sided with 57 Democrats, but he co-authored this obviously failed government bailout program. With the national debt nearing $15 trillion, the only question is whether or not Senator LeMieux will accept responsibility for potentially wasting an additional $30 billion of American taxpayer money."

LeMieuxs team quickly fired back.

Once more, Adam Hasners attempt (to) rewrite history is laughable, Anna Nix, LeMieuxs press secretary, emailed Sunshine State News on Tuesday. It is well-documented that George LeMieux received the Taxpayer Hero award from Citizens Against Government Waste, as well as numerous other awards from leading fiscal conservative groups for his record of cutting taxes and spending in the U.S. Senate. In fact, LeMieux proposed more spending cuts than all but one other senator in the last Congress.Meanwhile, Tallahassee career politician Adam Hasner voted for new taxes and fees totaling $2 billion, requested over $90 million in earmark pork projects, and voted for state budgets that hiked spending by 40 percent. Its hard to decide which is sillier: Hasners distortion of the facts or his attempt to call himself a conservative after proudly campaigning as a moderate for years.