Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was an early backer of Marco Rubios ambitions to land in the U.S. Senate and the once and perhaps future candidate for the Republican presidential nomination took aim at Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson on Tuesday.
Florida needs another conservative United States Senator like Marco Rubio, wrote Huckabee in an email sent out to more than 5,000 Floridians Tuesday. Democrat Senator Bill Nelson has been in Washington too long and it appears he's stopped listening to Floridians - after all, you didn't want bailouts, you didn't want the stimulus package and you sure didn't want Obamacare. Thanks to elected officials like Senator Nelson you got bailouts, you got the stimulus and you got Obamacare.
Huckabee, who moved to the Panhandle last year, noted that his leadership PAC, Huck PAC, is prepared to help out against Nelson.
Senator Nelson like all of the Democrats up for re-election in 2012 is a large reason our nation is going bankrupt, insisted Huckabee. Sadly last week, when given a chance to begin to redeem poor legislative choices, Senator Nelson voted against the repeal of Obamacare.
While Huckabee did not weigh in on who he would back for the Republican nomination in 2012, he thought that Nelson was vulnerable in 2012 when he will run for a third term. In January, Nelson stated that he planned to run for re-election.
A potentially crowded field of Republican candidates are considering taking on Nelson come 2012.
Potential Republican candidates include former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, Senate President Mike Haridopolos, former House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, businessman Mike McCalister who ran for governor in 2010 and businessman Nick Loeb who ran for the state Senate in 2010.
While Huckabee placed fourth in the Florida during the 2008 primaries, he carried four counties and pulled in 13.5 percent of the vote. Huckabee received the backing of a number of prominent Republicans including Daniel Webster and David Rivera who both went on to win congressional seats in 2010 and the support of Rubio and Haridopolos.
In 2010, after moving to the Sunshine State, Huckabee proved very active in the politics of his new home. Huck PAC endorsed Rubio for the U.S. Senate, Bill McCollum for the Republican gubernatorial nomination and backed several candidates for Congress including Webster, Rivera, Rich Nugent, Mike Prendergast, Dennis Ross and Steve Southerland.
All of those candidates went on to win save McCollum and Prendergast who is now chief of staff to Gov. Rick Scott. Huck PAC also backed legislative candidates including Haridopolos and Rep. Mike Horner, R-Kissimmee.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859
