Craigs Orlando Fl

Florida 2012 Senate race grows larger

Casting himself as the candidate of the people while flying a private plane across the state may not have been the most persuasive approach, but former Ruth’s Chris restaurant CEO Craig Miller did highlight the business experience lacking in his main rivals.

“I started in the dish room and worked my way — with hard work, determination and faith — to the boardroom,” said Miller, 61, announcing his candidacy at quick airport press conferences in Tampa, Orlando, Naples, West Palm Beach and Jacksonville.

“I have been paying attention to Main Street,” he said. “Folks in Washington, particularly Bill Nelson, have not.”

Before he takes on Democratic incumbent Sen. Nelson, though, Miller has to get past at least four Republican candidates — former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos, former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner and retired U.S. Army Col. Mike McCalister.

The larger the GOP field grows, the more unpredictable the primary. Anyone could win with just 25 percent of the vote.

Meanwhile, Nelson remains the heavy favorite, announcing Tuesday he had raised another $1.85 million over the past three months and has $6 million in his campaign account. Nelson’s second-quarter haul is almost double the top Republican in that period, LeMieux with more than $950,000.

The Republicans face the prospect of spending most of their money in the primary and entering the general election with little left to take on Nelson.

Miller, a Vietnam veteran from Winter Park, hopes he offers the kind of outsider appeal the others lack.

His message appears to differ little from the others, though: federal spending is out of control, the stimulus package failed, “Obamacare” is wrong and cap-and-trade energy proposals should be fought.

What separates him is experience, said Tom Tillison, a tea party activist in the Orlando area.

“Craig Miller shares the frustration that the tea party has with the political system. He’s got the real world experience that we need in Washington, particularly with the economic challenges we face. ... These guys were all products of Tallahassee. They’re all career politicians,’’ said Tillison, referring to Hasner, Haridopolos and LeMieux.

Sivan + Craig Wedding Video, The Summerlin House, Orlando, Florida

Sivan and Craig have become good friends with Reminisce. When we originally sat down at Starbucks and began to discuss their wedding video I knew it was going to be a very fun wedding. They had recently been to Israel and Craig took great pleasure in showing us the video he had put together of their trip. The Summerlin House in Orlando, Florida was the perfect venue for this amazing couple. It was a lot of fun and we were honored to capture their wedding day. This was the cutest first sight I have seen where they were on opposite sides of the door, so cute!

Proceedings of the 1994 ACM Conference on LISP and Functional Programming, papers presented at the conference, Orlando, Florida, June 27-29

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