Florida Senator Bill Nelson made a campaign stop Tuesday at the National High Magnetic Field Lab in Tallahassee. Nelson used the stop to criticize his Republican opponent’s vote to cut science funding.
“My opponent voted in May of this year 2012, he voted for a 1.2 billion dollar cut to the National Science Foundation,” Nelson said.
Nelson, Florida’s Senior U.S. Senator, also slammed Connie Mack’s proposed “penny plan” that would reduce federal funding for the National Science Foundation over ten years. The foundation is a key funding source for the local Mag Lab.
“His penny plan he touts for the future budget, it would reduce by 7.4 billion dollars the money going to the National Science Foundation over the next ten years,” Nelson said.
But, he did agree with his Republican challenger on there being no need for U.N. officials to monitor U.S. elections.
“We are a nation of laws. We respect the rule of law and that’s how our elections are conducted. And we have state laws that govern elections and we have federal laws that govern the civil rights of people,” Nelson said.
Meanwhile on Tuesday, Connie Mack campaigned with Republican Senator John McCain in Atlantic Beach Florida where they hammered the president on the deficit and defense spending. Latest polls show Senator Nelson with a slight lead over Mack.