Well, this is embarrassing for Republicans. The Grand Old Party has fallen to "third-party" status in Broward County. Registered Republicans now trail Democrats and "no-party affiliation/other party" registrants in the populous South Florida county. As of Dec. 31, the totals were: Democrats 551,822; NPA/Other 248,856; Republicans 248,066. Granted, the NPA/Other is a far-from-cohesive group that ranges wildly from rabid libertarians to stone communists, but it's nonetheless disheartening for Republicans to trail such a crowd.

On Friday, a day after announcing his committee assignments, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio named Cesar Conda as his chief of staff.

Noting that 11 police officers have been killed in the last week, including four from Florida, Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson wrote to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, asking him to consider better equipment and technology for U.S. marshals and other law enforcement personnel.

Tip of the cap to Taegan Goodard and the team at Politicalwire as U.S. Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, a favorite of conservatives, is taking a pass at the Republican presidential nod in 2012, though he may run for governor of the Hoosier State. While Pence showed surprising strength, even winning the Values Voter straw poll, he would have run against history. No member of the U.S. House of Represenatives has made the leap to the White House since James Garfield did it in 1880.

The Washington Post is reporting that longtime First Coast political operative Susan Wiles, best known for her work with Jeb Bush and more recently with Rick Scotts campaign last year, has joined up with a potential Republican presidential candidate -- Jon Huntsman, the former governor of Utah who is now serving as ambassador to China. Wiles joins an impressive team which includes a number of former staffers to John McCain.

Rep. Mark Pafford, D-West Palm Beach, and Sen. Thad Altman, R-Viera, have reached out across the aisle to work together to craft a bill to extend benefits in Florida for recent veterans.

Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Bill Posey weighed in on Thursday after the U.S. House, now under Republican control, voted on Wednesday to end public funding of presidential campaigns and party conventions. The president said he was willing to eliminate whatever we can honestly afford to do without, said Posey, referring to the State of the Union address on Tuesday.

Newly inaugurated Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio announced his committee assignments on Thursday. Rubio, the former House speaker who is now considered one of the rising stars of the Republican Party and already the subject of buzz on the presidential ticket come 2012, will serve on these committees:Commerce, Science and Transportation; Foreign Relations; Intelligence; Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

The House State Affairs Committee met on Thursday morning as they started examining one of the pressing issues that will dominate the 2011 session -- public employees pension plans. The committee, which is chaired by Rep. Seth McKeel, R-Lakeland, gathered information on Thursday for the session which opens in March.

Senate Majority Leader Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, released a video update on committee work on Thursday. Gardiner touched base on issues ranging from education to the economic damage from the oil spill in the Gulf to the State of the Union.

Friday marks the 25th anniversary of the one of the most tragic moments in Floridas history -- the Challenger disaster that claimed the lives of astronauts Dick Scobee, Michael Smith, Gregory Jarvis,Christa McAuliffe,Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka and Judith Resnik. Canceling the State of the Union address scheduled for that night, President Ronald Reagan addressed the nation, offering a tribute which is still poignant after all these years.

With reports out that Gov. Rick Scott is contemplating creating a state department of commerce, leaders from the business community said on Thursday they were open to the proposal.

Democratic presidential candidate Randall Terry -- the pro-life activist who founded Operation Rescue and who Floridians may remember for his role in the Teri Schiavo case as well as his challenge to the late Senate President Jim King in the Republican primary back in 2006 --offered stinging words for President Barack Obamas State of the Union address. Terry is challenging Obama in the Democratic primaries in 2012.

Attorney General Pam Bondi and law enforcement leaders including FDLE Commissioner Gerald Bailey and Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen are warning Floridians of a new drug threat in the form of MDPV (Methylenedioxypyrovalerone), also known as bath salts. Bondi set up an emergency rule to add MDPV to the list of banned controlled substances.