The move leaves the field open to conservative favorite Connie Mack IV, who can now focus on unseating Senator Bill Nelson in November:

I know this is an old thread, but I want to put in one more comment to say that Mack is most definitely not a conservative favorite.

The last poll I saw showed 37 percent of Florida Republican voters undecided in the U.S. Senate primary. The top vote-getter, with 34 percent of the vote, was Connie Mack IV. Mack subsequently announced the race was over and that he would be the nominee against Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson.

The arrogance of Mack’s proclamation and his refusal to debate other Republican candidates was surprising considering the gravitas of his opponents. 1. George LeMieux, who filled the seat of U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez and earned accolades for effectiveness from senior colleagues. 2. Former Rep. Dave Weldon, who served in the U.S. House for several terms and is a practicing physician. 3. Mike McCalister, a military veteran who ran ran for governor in 2010 and reached double digits despite his lack of funding and name recognition.

Not well suited to a conservative seat.

The pro-life Weldon, who helped pioneer local AIDS treatment after entering private practice in 1987…

Horologium on June 20, 2012 at 2:53 PM

Gay activists are the ones who have wanted to impose their values.

One disagreement and suddenly he’s persona non grata.

This is the kind of attitude that will lose us elections with great frequency.

Red Cloud on June 20, 2012 at 10:14 AM

The Purity Police aren’t about winning elections. They are about Purity, and policing to make sure it isn’t defiled by the slightest disagreement from their perfect ideals in any way. Because if you don’t toe their line 100%, you are impure and rejected. 99 44/100% pure is the enemy to them.

Weldon has an entire section of his site dedicated to “traditional family values”, touting his support of all things anti-gay (and a few things that I agree with, such as permanent repeal of the death tax and cracking down on kiddie p0rn), while Mack’s more stripped-down site doesn’t address social issues at all.

Mack is no social liberal, but he is a strong fiscal conservative who doesn’t go out of his way to demonize gays, like Weldon, Sam Brownback (who has already endorsed Weldon), and the Michelle Bachmann/Jim DeMint/Jim Inhofe crowd. I can live with his positions with which I disagree, because none of his signature issues are diametrically opposed to my own views. I don’t agree with him on WikiLeaks, but that’s not a dealbreaker for me.

Those supporting Hasner and LeMieux will probably go to him.

Hasner won the FL CPAC poll back in the fall before Mack entered. Hasner dropped out to run the district that was West’s. West is running in one of the new FL districts. IMO there was string pulling and some leaning done on him to quite after Mack entered.

For those of you unfamiliar with who Weldon is:

http://www2.tbo.com/news/opinion/2012/jun/16/naopino2-when-the-mischief-is-already-done-ar-416591/

Would I ever love to see him in the Senate. No more Macks.

What about Dave Weldon? He just entered the race, and he actually lives in Florida not California like Mack.

kwky on June 20, 2012 at 10:20 AM

Is Dave Weldon in the race? He was once my Rep. He’s a good guy, and someone I would actually volunteer for.

Horologium on June 20, 2012 at 12:30 PM

I liked him. I’m a social conservative. It’s far easier to go with the flow, than to take a principled stand.

LeMieux offered a somewhat graceless valediction, blaming Mack’s fundraising, his resistance to a series of debates, and most laughably the party “establishment” for his inability to compete in the primary:

LeMieux is right. Adam Hasner already dropped out–another push from the Macks, et al., in my estimation.

NOOOOO

I really can’t stand Connie Mack.

joekenha on June 20, 2012 at 10:05 AM

Yeah, I’m disgusted to see this political dynasty stranglehold. For those of you not from FL, here’s Mack’s political pedigree:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connie_Mack_IV

His father, Connie Mack III, represented the district from 1983 to 1989 (when it was numbered as the 13th District) before serving two terms in the U.S. Senate. He is a great-grandson of Connie Mack, the manager and owner of baseball’s Philadelphia Athletics, and member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. He is also a great-grandson of Morris Sheppard, U.S. Senator and Representative from Texas, and a step-great-grandson of Tom Connally, who was the Texas Junior Senator to Sheppard for 12 years (Sheppard’s widow married Connally the year after Sheppard died). Mack’s great-great-grandfather was John Levi Sheppard, who was also a U.S. Representative from Texas.

Unfortunately, LeMieux decided to openly cater to the social conservatives, using gays as a convenient shorthand for “I’m just as intolerant as the rest of the Republicans running for this seat.” In doing so, he lost my vote (and potentially my husband’s vote, which is significant since he’s a Democrat; he’s not particularly impressed with the canned responses he gets from Nelson). It’s too bad, because I actually went to high school with him, and I think that he is generally a good guy. I’m glad he dropped out before the race got really nasty, since I think that Nelson can be beaten by a strong Republican who hasn’t been slagged by primary opponents.

LeMieux may have a future in Florida politics, but not this year; the same goes for Mike Haridopoulos, who was the first candidate for this seat to drop out. Both of them are smart guys with good political instincts, but Connie Mack’s name and record have sucked up all of the oxygen in this race, and that is why all of the politically savvy guys dropped out or switched to other races (like Adam Hasner).

Just sayin’

http://www.stuart2012.com/

OH great another RINO might get in the senate. I thought the idea was to get rid of those guys.

bgibbs1000 on June 20, 2012 at 11:08 AM

RINO. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

If Rubio gets selected for VP, Mittens and the right will get hammered for it.

Rubio is not eligible for being pres and therefore should not be VP. I do hope he means it when he says that is why he won’t be VP.

TerryW on June 20, 2012 at 10:30 AM

I think it’s marvelous that Hot Gas allows crack addicts to post here.

Candidate For US Senate Faces Sex Charge

Via Drudge.

Real men are not called Connie.

CorporatePiggy on June 20, 2012 at 11:21 AM

His real name is Cornelius McGillicuddy IV.