U.S. Senate candidate Mike McCalister is a National Guard/Army Reserve colonel who spent his time in classrooms and offices, not on battlefields. (Photo courtesy of Mike McCalister.)
By Ralph De La Cruz
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
Mike McAlister is campaigning for the Republican nomination to be a U.S. Senator from Florida. But sometimes it seems as if he’s actually running to be general.
His campaign is officially called “Col. Mike McCalister For Senate.” His website starts off by asking visitors to “Show your support for the Colonel by making a donation today.” It has a button titled “Meet The Colonel.” His press releases are filled with “the Colonel’s message to voters” and references to “the Colonel’s opponents” and “The Colonel will win the primary.”
It’s all Colonel this and Colonel that. And McCalister’s rhetoric on the campaign has done nothing but encourage that view of an Army warrior.
But it turns out that McCalister has never faced enemy fire. He’s a National Guard/Army Reserve colonel who spent his time in classrooms and offices, not on battlefields. McCalister’s service has been so far behind the lines; he can’t even be called rear echelon. He’s never served outside the United States.
That hasn’t stopped him from wrapping himself up in military images and symbols. He just keeps channeling his inner Colonel, even after a veterans’ watchdog group named Stolen Valor called him on it.
The “Colonel” strategy worked for Allen West. He saluted his way into a U.S. House of Representatives seat in 2010. But think what you may of West and him being forced out of the Army for conducting himself less than honorably — at least he actually served in Iraq.
Now, it turns out that not only has McCalister played fast-and-loose with his military service, but in violation of Army regulations, he also put on his unmuddied uniform to campaign.
The Miami Herald’s Marc Caputo, who has been all over this story from the beginning, has found that McCalister wore the uniform to a political fundraiser in Highlands County in February. By doing so, he broke Army rules that stipulate current and former service members may only wear uniforms to ceremonial events such as Memorial Day or July 4th gatherings — but never to political events.
Incredibly, when the first poll of the Republican primary was released by Quinnipiac University at the beginning of the month, the Plant City resident led the pack with 15 percent. Incredible not just because of McCalister’s possible misrepresentations, but because the tea party apparently also doesn’t care for him. First, there was pushback to his apparent self-characterization as a national tea party star, and then questions about his affiliation with Central Florida political insider Douglas Guetzloe.
All those questions about McCalister seem to be having an impact. In a poll released Aug. 26 by Ron Sachs Communications and Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, The Colonel had dropped to 2 percent.
In a month, McAlister dropped from first to sixth. About the only thing that didn’t change in the two polls was that more than half of Republican voters remain undecided. At the beginning of August, Quinnipiac found that 53 percent were undecided. After a month that included a debate among the candidates, 52 percent are undecided.