The Senate race between incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson and his Republican opponent, Connie Mack IV, is not just about which man will represent Florida in Washington. It's about which party will control the Senate and ultimately the nation's Capital.

As background, Democrats control the Senate by a 53-47 margin, so Republicans need four more seats to take charge.  Nationwide, there are nine tossup Senate elections in which either party could win, six of these with a Democratic incumbent—Nelson one of them--making his seat a must-win pretty much for either party. And the recent flare-up over abortion-related statements made by Todd Akin, the Missouri GOP Senate candidate, may actually help Mack in Florida. If Akin stays in the race and the Republican establishment withdrawals funding from his campaign as they have threatened to do, that money may come to Mack, making the Florida Senate contest even more pivotal in the struggle for control of the Senate.

Previously, I reviewed an anti-Nelson ad funded by a third-party group, Americans for Prosperity, headed by the Koch brothers from Kansas.  In this Reality Check I review an ad from the Nelson campaign attacking Congressman Mack.  It seeks to introduce Mack to Florida voters, this being the congressman's first statewide race. The Mack "brand" is well-known--his father, Connie Mack III, was a congressman and two-term US Senator, and his same-named great-grandfather was a legendary baseball owner and manager--but Mack IV is more a question mark.  

"Meet Connie Mack" the ad opens.[1] It first tells viewers that the congressman worked as a “promoter for Hooters,” a claim that is mostly true, depending on what one means by "promoter." Stated more precisely, he worked as a marketing executive from 1994 to 2000 for a company that owned restaurants, including several Hooters.[2]

Viewers are also told that Mack has a "history of barroom brawling and road rage," which is true. These incidents include an altercation with baseball player Ron Gant at an Atlanta sports bar, which was the subject of a lawsuit. In fairness, this is past history rather than a continuing one; the last such incident occurred in 1992.[3]

The ad next says that Mack has a “trail of debts and liens,” which is partly true.  I say “partly” because these debts and liens occurred in a concentrated time period, coinciding with Mack’s divorce from his first wife, Ann, soon after his election to Congress.[4]

More damningly, the ad says his attendance record was “one of the worst in Congress in the past year,” which is true. In 2012, while he was campaigning for Senate, he failed to vote 29% of the time, earning the House’s seventh worst voting record.[5]  His four-term voting record is better but still subpar, with Mack missing six percent of rollcall votes, more than twice the median for House members.

So overall I rate this ad mostly true. 

2) http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2012/aug/07/bill-nelson/bill-nelson-says-connie-mack-iv-has-been-promoter-/

3) http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2012/aug/07/bill-nelson/bill-nelson-says-connie-mack-iv-has-been-promoter-/

4) http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2012/02/connie-mack-preaches-penny-pinching-but-has-a-court-record-past-of-debt-and-liens-and-fights.html

5) http://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/connie_mack/400622