Struggling in the polls, Adam Hasner pulled out of the U.S. Senate race Tuesday to run in a South Florida congressional district vacated by Rep. Allen West. Hours earlier, West announced his move to Rep. Tom Rooney's district and Rooney shifted to a newly drawn district in south-central Florida. That left an opening for Hasner to run in West's district, which closely resembles the one Hasner represented in the Florida House.

U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, has announced he will seek to represent the proposed agricultural district that would be broken off his current seat instead of running for the Treasure Coast-dominated seat. The people of this district have always been good to me, and I look forward to representing this region for another two years, Rooney stated in a release. Rooney is expected to move to the Charlotte area. The move opens up the Treasure Coast for a run by U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation.

Former Gov. Charlie Crist -- who left the Republican party in 2010 after being overtaken in the U.S. Senate primary by Marco Rubio to continue his bid with no party affiliation -- told Chuck Todd of MSNBC that he would be open to backing President Barack Obama in November and would consider running for office down the road as a Democrat. First Read has the former governors answer when asked if he was thinking about backing Obama:

With the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services mandating that religious organizations provide insurance coverage for birth control under the federal health-care law that President Barack Obama signed, Florida Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio introduced a measure allowing church-affiliated organizations the ability to opt out on grounds of religious liberty and right of conscience. Rubio introduced the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 2012 on Tuesday. Staffers told Sunshine State News they are working on securing Senate co-sponsors and backers in the U.S. House.

From his perch on the U.S. House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Ander Crenshaw took aim at planned cuts to the military budget.

The following is Associated Industries of Florida President and CEO Tom Feeney's take on last week's legislative subcommittee defeat of the pro-business "bad-faith" reforms:

Absentee ballots were on track to hit a Florida Republican presidential primary record Tuesday -- and that could be good news for Mitt Romney. The 630,000 absentee ballots received before the weekend will likely swell to nearly 700,000 during final counting today, said Randy Nielsen, a GOP political consultant. After all the votes are tallied, some 2 million ballots are expected to be cast in the presidential preference primary, compared with the 1.5 million votes in the 2010 GOP gubernatorial primary.

The team behind former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich made their final case to voters in the Sunshine State on Tuesday, the day of the Florida Republican presidential primary.

Ahead in the polls, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney made his final pitch to Florida Republican primary voters on Tuesday, the day of the primary.

With the full Senate expected to review and discuss a bill that would allow the state to privatize about 30 correctional facilities in Central and South Florida, Gov. Rick Scott went on Facebook Monday telling people to contact legislators in support of the effort.

Despite the millions of dollars being spent by Super PACs on mostly negative ads, Gov. Rick Scott says the debate performances will matter more to Florida voters as the GOPs primary is decided today.

Gov. Rick Scott has called for the state Department of Law Enforcement to investigate the source of a series of fatal crashes on Interstate 75 near Gainesville late Saturday and early Sunday that left 10 dead and at least 21 injured. I have asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate the circumstances leading up to this incident, Scott stated in a release Monday night.

In the race to hit the magic 1,144 -- the number of delegates needed to win the nomination -- Romney has the lead, edging out Newt Gingrich, who picked up 23 delegates in South Carolina to keep his campaign alive. The scorecard ahead of Florida's GOP Presidential Preference Primary on Tuesday: * Romney has tallied 35 delegates, including Republican National Committee members who have endorsed him ahead of the GOP convention in Tampa. * Gingrich is running second with 25. * Rick Santorum has pulled in 14.

Gov. Rick Scott has suspended Osceola County Clerk of the Court Malcom Thompson, who was charged with one count of assault by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement on Friday. According to the Orlando Sentinel, Thompson had been accused of shoving an employee of the clerks office during office hours on Dec. 29.

Attention, Florida tea partiers: Newt Gingrich topped an online straw poll conducted by Tea Party Patriots over the weekend. The former House speaker received 35 percent of the vote following Sunday nights Tea Party Patriots Presidential Tele Forum, where Florida tea activists directed questions to Republican presidential candidates Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum. (Ron Paul was invited but could not attend.) TPP said nearly 6,000 tea activists from Florida participated in the call, and 600 voted in the straw poll.