Even with a helping hand from Bill McCollum, Alex Sink just can't get past Rick Scott in the governor's race. Today's CNN/Time poll showed Scott holding a 47-45 lead over his Democratic rival. The Sink camp tried to put on a happy face by pointing out that their candidate leads Scott 46-45 among registered voters, but that's a meaningless number. First off, polls citing only registered voters are notoriously unreliable, especially in this year of lousy Democratic turnouts.

Yet another poll shows Republican candidate Marco Rubio leading the U.S. Senate race in Florida. A CNN/Time/Opinion Research Corp. poll of likely voters released on Wednesday had Rubio out in front with 42 percent. Gov. Charlie Crist, who is running without party affiliation, placed second with 31 percent while Democratic nominee U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek was in third with 23 percent.

Kendrick Meek's camp is merrily Tweeting about the rave reviews his latest ad is receiving. But, really, what's the point? The upshot of the TV spot -- that Charlie Crist is a "conservative" -- seems out of time and place. Crist bolted the Republican Party last spring precisely because he was not a conservative, and his dated declarations in the ad merely confirm everyone's suspicions about this rank political opportunist.

A report released today by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed four Florida cities in the list of top 20 metropolitan areas with the highest unemployment rates for the month of August.

U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, the ranking Republican on the U.S. House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, cheered the House Foreign Affairs Committee postponing a vote on a proposed measure to lift the travel ban on Cuba.

The EPA has given the state of Florida a month's reprieve to implement new water regulations. Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson is claiming some credit, having sent a letter to EPA chief Lisa Jackson on Sept. 16 asking for more time. I support new water standards but many Florida residents, municipalities, businesses and farmers have expressed concern about the potential cost of these standards and the validity of the science, said Nelson. He added that the EPA will have more time for public input with the new deadline.

Rasmussen Reports released a new poll on Wednesday, confirming what polls have shown for the last two weeks -- that Republican candidate Marco Rubio is leading in the U.S. Senate race by a healthy margin.

Republican U.S. Sen. George LeMieux pushed back against the EPA on Wednesday, looking to strike water regulations from that agency impacting the Sunshine State. This rule will hurt Floridas families, insisted LeMieux. It will cost our state billions of dollars, thousands of jobs, and drive up water bills. This is lawsuit-driven regulation without a sound scientific basis and the result will be unnecessarily catastrophic for Florida. The EPAs actions threaten Floridas economy and are unlikely to provide little, if any, biological benefit.

The Florida Police Benevolent Association, which has endorsed Democrat Alex Sink in the governor's race, released an ad Wednesday attacking her opponent, Republican Rick Scott. The 30-second ad claims Scott's plan would cut the budget for prisons in half, forcing some to close, letting "murderers, rapists, sex offenders, armed robbers, drug dealers," out early. It depicts Rick Scott letting out thankful prisoners.

Teacher unions aren't the only subversive elements to education reform and accountability. Teacher colleges appear to be co-conspirators, a new report says. "Cracks in the Ivory Tower," released today by the Thomas Fordham Institute, reports in its survey of 738 teacher-educators at four-year universities and colleges:

U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, the Democratic candidate in the race for the U.S. Senate seat up in November, continued attacking Gov. Charlie Crist, who is running without party affiliation, on Wednesday afternoon, arguing that the governor is in the pocket of oil companies.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and is considering another attempt at it in 2012, unveiled a new aspect of his HuckPACs website on Wednesday to help Republican candidates in Novembers election. Huckabee, who moved to Florida earlier in the year and has been active in working with Republican candidates in the Sunshine State, showed off the Pledge to Vote for Conservatives which can be found at http://www.ivoteforconservatives.com.

In a rare soft ad, Rep. Alan Grayson shows his lighter side with a spot titled, "Let it Shine." But even here the Orlando Democrat is generating controversy, as discerning viewers noted that it's an almost exact replica of Eliot Spitzer's 2006 video by the same name. You be the judge. Compare the two here: The resemblance caught the eye of adman Jimmy Siegel, who told Politico: "Can I sue for plagarism? They should pay me the media buy.

The Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) doubled down on its bet that President Barack Obama's new federal health-care laws will be a burning issue in the close battle between Republican candidate Pam Bondi and Democratic nominee Sen. Dan Gelber of Miami Beach to be Floridas next attorney general.

The campaign team of Republican Marco Rubio, the front-runner in the U.S. Senate seat election, threw jabs at Gov. Charlie Crist, who is running in the race without party affiliation, for a comment he made on MSNBC on Tuesday night -- arguing that it shows the governor, who left the GOP earlier in the year, has no principles. MSNBCs Lawrence ODonnell asked Crist if there were any positions he would have changed now that he is no longer a Republican, and the governor answered, No, not really.