Gov. Charlie Crist, who is running for the U.S. Senate without party affiliation, continues to be hammered from both Democrats and Republicans. Crist needs to win Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents if he hopes to catch the front-runner, Republican candidate Marco Rubio. Polls show Crist trailing Rubio by double digits and that Democratic candidate U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek is catching up to the governor.

On Tuesday, conservative leader Gary Bauer, best known for his bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000 and leading the Family Research Council, weighed in on congressional races in Florida.

A new poll by Sunshine State News shows Republican Daniel Webster leading Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson by 7 points in Central Florida's 8th Congressional District. Webster, a former state senator, tops the freshman congressman 43-36 in the survey conducted this week. TEA Party candidate Peg Dunmire drew 6 percent and George Metcalfe, running with no party affiliation, garnered 3 percent. Nine percent remained undecided.

The Florida Cabinet unanimously backed Mimi Drew to replace Michael Sole as secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection on Tuesday. Secretary Drew has more than 30 years of technical, supervisory, and administrative experience with Florida environmental issues, said Gov. Charlie Crist. She is a proven leader, and I am confident she will continue to serve the people of Florida responsibly and with integrity.

The Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) weighed in Tuesday on its efforts to get the vote out on Election Day. The RPOF announced that it has reached out to almost 165,000 voters as volunteers man the phone banks.

Ash Williams, executive director and chief investment officer of the Florida State Board of Administration (SBA) announced on Tuesday that Melinda Miguel, currently chief inspector general in the governors office, will be serving as inspector general of the SBA starting Nov. 8.

In a lengthy interview with Jann S. Wenner from Rolling Stone to be published Friday, President Barack Obama defended the job performance of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and rejected the suggestion of comparing Salazar to Tony Hayward, who was fired by BP due to his handling of the oil spill in the Gulf.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is flying high these days. The vice-chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, Wasserman Schultz has received plenty of national media attention the past few weeks, especially her defense of the existing travel ban of Cuba. Karen Harrington, the Republican candidate challenging Wasserman Schultz, has her work cut out for her to beat the incumbent but she is showing plenty of pluck -- and an instinct for the attack.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who moved to Florida earlier this year and ran for the Republican presidential nomination back in 2008, weighed in on the support that he received last week from a longtime supporter -- action movie legend Chuck Norris. Ive known Chuck for years and appreciate greatly his ongoing support of my efforts and his work on behalf of conservative candidates and conservative causes, wrote Huckabee to supporters on Tuesday.

President Barack Obama, in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, says Democrats need to "buck up." Separately on Monday, Vice President Joe Biden told Democrats at a fund-raising event in New Hampshire to "stop whining," according to MSNBC.

In 2004, John Thune pulled off a major upset -- knocking off U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle to represent South Dakota in Washington. Now Thune appears increasingly likely to attempt another upset by winning the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott unveiled his education plan at a campaign stop in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday. It is time we make a firm commitment to the positive educational outcome Floridians deserve and have a right to expect. It is time we recognize changes in society and technology are driving a need for change in our public education system, and our students need to take center stage, said Scott. And it is time that the money follows the student and not the system.

Now for the rest of the story. Countering Rep. Alan Grayson's incendiary "Taliban Dan" ad, Republican congressional challenger Dan Webster released a video putting his biblical comments in context. The "submit to me" mantra eerily aired in Grayson's attack ad takes on a wholly different, far more benign meaning in Webster's video (see above). Meantime, Webster takes on Grayson in a new ad linking the Orlando Democrat to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The campaign team of Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott launched a new ad on Monday attacking Democratic rival state CFO Alex Sink -- claiming that she shepherded no-bid contracts while in office to Bank of America where she once worked.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott unveiled a new commercial targeting state CFO Alex Sink, the Democrat in the race. Mere hours after releasing an ad embracing her job overseeing the State Board of Administration, the editorial board of the St. Petersburg Times said Sink was either clueless about the facts or willing to misrepresent them, said Joe Kildea, a spokesman for Scott. The performance of the SBA under her watch is nothing short of a disaster, and Floridians deserve better.