I had rooted for Adam Hasner, whose campaign is not taking off like I had expected it to. I guess we won’t have a clear picture of how the field is shaping up for a while.
I'm GLAD the race is wide open, I don't like when self-proclaimed “conservative leaders” anoint someone behind closed doors early in the process and announce all conservatives “have to” support him; anymore than when I like RINOs doing that. I'll vet the candidates myself and decide which one is best, thank you very much. This isn't a case of 1 month before a primary and 8 conservatives beating each other up while an Arlen Specter type-RINO is pulling ahead.
In Illinois, the “conservative leaders” who announce a “consensus choice” have picked notoriously poor candidates... John Cox, Jim Oberweis, Patrick Hughes, etc. Need I say more? Obviously, Florida Republicans don't have need as bad a track record but even I am starting to get buyer's remorse with Marco Rubio in spite the fact he's a “rising star” in the GOP. Although he's nowhere aa bad as Mel Martinez, he appears to be wear on immigration as well. I warned conservatives to vet this guy before anointing him as the “conservative choice” but it feel on deaf ears. Of course, once the race evolved into a Rubio vs. Crist contest, it was a no-brainer which was better.
Out of curiosity, I visited Mike McCalister’s website and aside from informing me (about 8 times on his homepage) that he's a retired Colonel, it didn't tell me much. How about giving up a platform and policy positions, Col.? What's your vision for Florida? I pretty much figured out you're a colonel within 5 seconds, you don't need to keep reminding me.
http://www.mikemccalisterforsenate.com/
George LeMieux actually sounds pretty good on paper, and as I've noted his track record in the Senate was actually decent. But I will have to concede that the Charlie Crist connection raises way too many red flags, and will probably kill the guy's chances. I like him but don't trust him.
http://www.georgeforflorida.com/
Adam Hasner... where's the website? It just directs me to his facebook page. He wants conservatives to know that he's THE conservative champion in this race and you gotta get aboard right now and sign up for his campaign, giving out your contact info, to learn more... hmm. I'm getting an Adam Andrejewski 2010 vibe here.
http://www.adamhasner.com/
The candidates I liked best so far are probably two long shots, Craig Miller (http://miller2012.com/issues/) and
Marielena Stuart (http://www.marielenastuartforussenate2012.com/). Both seem to have an inspiring life story and a detailed solidly conservative policy plan they're not afraid to tell you. I don't know if either has a snowball's chance in hell but it would ashamed if they were dismissed this early in the process. I admire Craig's service in Vietnam and Marielena Stuart could be a face of the new GOP in much the same way Susana Martinez is. Hard to call the GOP racist when we have outspoken conservative latinas. I'm not too fond of her message “en espanol” but I'll give her a break since she's a Cuban-american so that's her natural constituency. Two Cuban-american senators from FL? Why not, if Adam gets the nod it will be two former state house leaders as Senators. And B-1 Bob endorsed Marielena! (okay he's a little flakey but you gotta admit he always stands for staunch conservatives)
We'll see how this develops.