Rep. Connie Mack (R-FL) is denying that he called a heckler in Pensacola a “jack-ass.” Mack veered off-script during a press conference at a gas station Thursday when he responded to a heckler who was not pleased with the message he’s been pushing at the pump.

The GOP Senate front-runner has been holding events at gas stations to promote his Keystone Pipeline petition. Mack has pushed for the construction of the pipeline for over a year, and recently launched a petition drive calling for the pipeline to be built. He’s been pushing his petition at gas stations around Florida in recent weeks.

During one such stop Thursday, Mack engaged a heckler who called the lawmaker’s claims regarding Keystone “bogus.”

“Tell me what’s bogus?” Mack said on his way out of the event.

The man, Barry Goodson, said Mack had some choice words for him during their ensuing exchange.  “He called me a loudmouth,” Goodson said afterwards. “He called me a jackass. The jackass is him!”

Mack denies he  called the man a “jack-ass.”

“He might have been, but that’s not what I said,” Mack said after a similar event at a Tallahassee Shell station Friday.

Meanwhile, the GOP primary hit an important bench-mark today. “We are 100 days out from the primary election,”  Mack opponent, George LeMieux, reminded supporters in a fundraising e-mail today.

Tags | Barry Goodson, Connie Mack, Keystone Pipeline