We've given Gov. Charlie Crist grief for pledging during the 2006 Republican gubernatorial primary that he would govern along the conservative lines of the man he was seeking to replace, Jeb Bush, and then lurching to the left after he was elected. His enthusiastic backing of the Legislature's decision to have the state, in effect, take over the property insurance industry in Florida was one example of un-Jeb-ish behavior. Another was the governor's backing of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus program. The media has been referring to that support for months without a peep of protest from Crist - until Wednesday. ...more

November 7, 2009

Add another candidate to the growing number of Republicans seeking to dethrone Democrat Rose Rocco from her District 2 county commission seat. ...more

October 31, 2009

State Sen. Paula Dockery will announce a decision next week on whether to enter the governor race and won't comment on the accuracy of a news report that she'll announce she's running. ...more

October 31, 2009

Regarding J. Ron Smith's letter in the Sept. 4 issue. Mr. Smith is concerned because "Rep. Rooney had already made up his mind to vote against the health care reform bill, no matter the content." Well, from what I have read in this newspaper, Rep. Tom Rooney has done something that virtually no Democrat congressperson has done so far; he actually read the bill (HR 3200.) ...more

September 11, 2009

County Commissioner Rose Rocco has acquired the 1,230 signatures needed to place her name on the 2010 November ballot. ...more

September 4, 2009

Former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz told an Indiana television station he doesn't plan to run for Congress in Florida. ...more

August 6, 2009

Gov. Charlie Crist announced today that he has chosen Earl Lennard to be Hillsborough County's supervisor of elections. Lennard replaces Phyllis Busansky, a Democrat, who was elected in November 2008 and died last month. Lennard, a Republican, will fill the position until 2010, at which point he may run for election. ...more

July 14, 2009

Republican Norm Coleman conceded to Democrat Al Franken in Minnesota's contested Senate race on Tuesday, hours after a unanimous state Supreme Court ruled the former "Saturday Night Live" comedian should be certified the winner. ...more

June 30, 2009

A Senate committee has approved opening the eastern Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling within 10 miles to the Florida Panhandle and within 45 miles off the rest of the state's coastline. ...more

June 9, 2009

They told me if I voted for McCain, the nation's hope would deteriorate, sure enough there has been a 20 point drop in the Consumer Confidence Index since the election, reaching a lower point than at any time during the Bush administration. ...more

March 26, 2009