Fear not, voters, if you’re just now tuning in to Florida’s U.S. Senate race.

PolitiFact Florida has been watching the budding matchup between incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson and Republican challenger Rep. Connie Mack IV for months.

We’ve vetted many attacks you might have seen on TV — and if you haven’t yet, you will.

Consider this a cheat sheet of what to expect through Nov. 6.

Nelson, healthcare

Nelson voted for President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul, and Mack won’t let voters forget it. Neither will big-spending outside groups determined to turn Nelson out of office. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, American Commitment and the 60 Plus Association have made repeated claims about the law and Nelson’s connection to it in scary ads. Among them:

• Nelson was the “deciding” vote. Certainly every vote counts in the Senate. But Nelson’s vote was no more significant than those of other senators who voted in favor of the healthcare law. Plus, his vote lacked the drama of other senators with last-minute demands, such as Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb. That claim is Mostly False.

• The healthcare vote imposes the largest tax increase in history on the middle class. While it’s true the healthcare law calls for the first significant tax increases since 1993, other presidents proposed and signed laws carrying taxes of near-equal weight, including Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Presidents Ronald Reagan and Lyndon B. Johnson signed larger tax hikes, and two World War II tax increases were significantly bigger as well. This claim is Pants on Fire!

We’ve also debunked claims that the law could cost “double what we were promised” (False) and “that 20 million people could lose their current coverage” (Mostly False).

Character attacks

Former Sen. George LeMieux threw everything he had at Mack before dropping out of the GOP primary in June, deriding him as a reckless “Half-Mack.”

Among his claims: Mack took 7 ½ years to get a bachelor’s degree; he didn’t live in Florida but in California with his wife, Rep. Mary Bono Mack; and he failed to pay child support.

Those claims fared poorly on our Truth-O-Meter (Mostly False, Mostly False and False, respectively), and Nelson’s campaign has not reused them.

Nelson has recycled one LeMieux talking point, however, in his first attack ad — Mack’s connection to the Hooters restaurant chain.

“Florida, meet Connie Mack IV. A promoter for Hooters with a history of barroom brawling, altercations and road rage. . . .” the ad says.

Mack left his job at a management company, which owned and operated several Hooters franchises, in 2000 for the Florida House. He never received a paycheck directly from Hooters, but “we never denied he worked on behalf of Hooters,” spokesman David James told us at the time.

The rest of the ad’s claim pretty accurately sums up incidents during Mack’s 20s, as detailed by The Miami Herald earlier this year. On the whole, we rate Nelson’s statement Mostly True, deducting some accuracy points for implying he currently works as a Hooters promoter.

‘Mediscare’

Mitt Romney’s selection of Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., as his running mate will only inflame the Medicare attacks we have already seen in the Mack-Nelson race.