One of the big third-quarter fundraising winners in Tallahassee is Florida state Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto, R-Wellington, who represents parts of Charlotte, Glades, Hendry, Lee and Palm Beach counties. She raised more than $106,000 in the third quarter and kept most of it on hand -- spending just more than $2,000. Rep. Trudi Williams, R-Fort Myers, has filed to run against her as she looks to jump from the House to the Senate. Williams is hoping to be redistricted away from Benacquistos district, and her third quarter fundraising shows why.

Herman Cain on Tuesday night called Alan Greenspan the best Federal Reserve chairman and said he had "two candidates waiting in the wings" to replace current Fed chairman Ben Bernanke. But Ron Paul called Greenspan "a disaster." "We shouldn't have someone deciding how much money we should have. Greenspan created the biggest bubble, and Bernanke has only compounded the problem," Paul said. "Paul Volcker at least knew how to end inflation."

When candidates got a chance to ask other candidates questions at the Bloomberg debate Tuesday night, most of the fire was aimed at Mitt Romney and Herman Cain, the front-runners in national polls. Cain called on Romney: "Can you name all 59 points in your economic plan, and does it satisfy criteria of being simple, transparent, fair and neutral?" (Romney didn't try.) Newt Gingrich questioned Romney about the rationale for proposing capital gains tax cuts for people earning less than $200,000.

As he rises in the polls, Herman Cain got more critical attention from his rivals at the debate table in New Hampshire on Tuesday night. Following Jon Huntsman's jab about Cain's "9-9-9" tax plan sounding like a pizza offer, Rick Santorum asked the Dartmouth College audience for a show of hands supporting Cain's proposed national sales tax. "That just gives Nancy Pelosi a new [tax] pipeline," Santorum said.

Liberal journalists Charlie Rose and Karen Tumulty on Tuesday trotted out a video clip of Ronald Reagan suggesting that tax increases have a place in the budget-balancing process. Repeatedly prodding the eight Republican candidates at the Bloomberg debate to rise to the bait, the duo had no takers. Jumping in, Bloomberg reporter Juliana Goldman challenged Herman Cain's "9-9-9" tax plan by saying that all Americans will pay more for "bread, milk and beer." Cain responded that his plan would be "revenue neutral."

Two GOP businessmen -- Mitt Romney and Herman Cain -- defended the controversial bailouts of key financial institutions while two politicians -- Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul -- assailed the move. "[Former Treasury Secretary] Henry Paulson and Tim Geithner didn't have a clue," Gingrich said Tuesday night at the Bloomberg debate in New Hampshire. "Congress should insist that every Fed document from 2007 to 2009 be released. We are not any better prepared today [to deal with economic problems], because the people who were in that crisis are still in charge."

Jon Huntsman and Herman Cain sparred over Cain's "9-9-9" tax proposal during the Bloomberg debate on Tuesday night. "I thought it was the price of a pizza when I first heard it," Huntsman said, alluding to Cain's former position as CEO of Godfather's Pizza. Cain fired back at the Utah governor, saying, "Unlike your proposals, my plan throws off the current tax code. You can't pivot on the current tax code and fix this economy."

Resurrecting the specter of death panels, Rep. Michele Bachmann said on Tuesday that Obamacare health-care policies will be driven by a committee of political appointees. "Fifteen political appointees will make all health-care decisions," the Minnesota congresswoman said at the Bloomberg debate in New Hampshire. Meantime, Bachmann decried the president's plan, which she said will "collapse Medicare."

Newt Gingrich called on Tuesday night for the firing of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. "Bernanke spent hundreds of billions of dollars in secret bailing out business. There was no transparency there," said the former House speaker at the Bloomberg presidential debate from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. Going further, Gingrich said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., should be "in jail" for their sponsorship of the Dodd-Frank financial law that conservatives have assailed as ineffectual.

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry said on Tuesday he wants to get 1.2 million Americans workingin the U.S. energy industry. Pledging to lay out an energy plan over the next three days, he vowed to "open up this treasure trove America is sitting on." "You have an administration that ... through intimidation and overregulation ... is strangling entrepreneurs," the Texas governor said during a Bloomberg debate from Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H.

RPOF Chairman Lenny Curry issued a statement Tuesday on President Barack Obama's visit to Florida: As the president comes to Florida today to raise money for his campaign, news reports say he will also be meeting with unemployed construction workers. During that meeting he should explain why his original $825 billion stimulus has failed to create jobs for them. Obama himself has admitted that the shovel-ready jobs included in the original stimulus were not as shovel-ready as we expected. We just cant trust Obama to get the job done.

Sunshine State News will live-blog tonight's Republican presidential debate at Dartmouth College. The two-hour debate, which will be aired on Bloomberg Television, will focus on economics. And there will be plenty to talk about with the political football known as the Obama jobs bill being kicked around in Congress, and the country flirting with a double-dip recession. Look for fireworks to start around 8 p.m.

Space Florida and a British trade organization signed a memorandum of understanding Tuesday to further business opportunities between Florida and the United Kingdom. Space Florida director Frank DiBello signed the pact with Rees Ward, chief executive officer of A|D|S Group Ltd., to "leverage their relationships to maximize business development potential for the other in their own markets."

Floridas revenue forecast for the next budget year is bleak. And the outlook goes deeper into the red the following year. The states revenue estimating conference is projecting that Floridas stalled economy will generate between $857 million and $1.2 billion less next year than initially projected. The shortfall, due to vast drops in sales and document taxes, could grow to $1.5 billion in the following year. A more set total is expected later this afternoon.