A day after the Legislature convened for a special session and quickly adjourned, Rep. Kevin Rader, D-Boynton Beach, sent a letter to Gov. Charlie Crist asking for yet another special session -- this time to deal with unemployment benefits. Rader, who is running for the Senate, sent a letter to Crist on Wednesday, imploring the governor to call another special session or to issue an executive order to take part in the extension of unemployment benefits that worked its way through the U.S. Senate this week.

Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, announced Thursday morning that he has more than $2.1 million in the bank for his CFO campaign. Atwater is the Republican candidate for CFO, having chased away all potential challengers. Atwaters team announced that he had pulled in more than $245,000 in cash contributions during the second quarter of 2010 -- adding to an already impressive war chest.

The two leading candidates in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate election -- U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek and billionaire financier Jeff Greene -- will hold three debates in the coming weeks. The first debate will be held on Sunday, Aug. 1 on Bay News 9 in the Tampa Bay area. The second will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 10 at WKMG in Orlando and will be shown across CBS stations in Florida. The last will be Sunday, Aug. 15 on WPLG in South Florida.

On Thursday morning, the Florida Retail Federation PAC announced its endorsement of U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam, the Republican candidate for agriculture and consumer services commissioner.

The campaign team of Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, unveiled a web video on Thursday morning that accused Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, their rival for the Democratic attorney general nomination, of running a negative campaign.

Locked in a close primary battle with a little over a month until the primary election, the three candidates fighting it out for the Republican nomination for attorney general announced on Wednesday that they would hold a debate on Saturday, July 31. The debate between Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp, former Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Holly Benson and former Assistant State Attorney Pam Bondi will be held at noon on the Florida Decides Forum show which will be hosted by Bay News 9 in Tampa and News 13 in Orlando.

TEA Party candidate Peg Dunmire swamped U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, 72 percent to 28 percent, in the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce's straw ballot. Dunmire and Grayson, D-Orlando, were the only two candidates on the congressional straw ballot, and Dunmire was the lone candidate present from the crowded 8th Congressional District field. Seven Republicans are vying in the Aug. 24 primary to face Dunmire and Grayson in the general election.

Space Florida and U.K. Trade & Investment today signed a formal memorandum of understanding to pursue commercial space opportunities. It was the first such agreement between the Florida space agency and a foreign government. Strategic, international partnerships are critical to the viability and growth of future U.S. commercial space programs, said Space Florida President Frank DiBello. Todays event marks a significant step forward toward ensuring Floridas numerous space assets -- both physical and intellectual -- are leveraged by the global space marketplace.

Property owners in the 26 counties affected by the Gulf oil spill are eligible for interim assessments to substantiate claims against BP or others, Gov. Charlie Crist declared today. With his executive order, Crist said, An interim assessment will give property owners the documentation they need to hold BP accountable." The interim assessment will not change the tax bills residents pay in November. And speaking of executive orders, state Rep. Kevin Radar is pressing Crist to pay out additional benefits to unemployed Floridians.

With President Barack Obama signing Wall Street reform legislation on Wednesday, Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Karen Thurman said Florida would greatly benefit from the new reforms.

Republican gubernatorial hopeful Rick Scott released his economic plan on Wednesday morning and he is claiming his seven steps will lead to 700,000 new jobs over the next seven years. My seven-point plan isnt complex; in fact, its based on proven common-sense business principles, said Scott. I am the only candidate with a proven record of creating private sector jobs and my comprehensive 7-7-7 plan will put our financial house in order, balance the budget, and create the jobs Floridians desperately need.

Public Policy Polling just released a poll revealing state CFO Alex Sink, the likely Democratic candidate for governor, has a solid lead over Republican front-runner Rick Scott and a commanding lead over Attorney General Bill McCollum. The poll had Sink with 36 percent, Scott with 30 percent and independent candidate Bud Chiles with 13 percent. Sink did even better against McCollum -- 37 percent for Sink, 23 percent for McCollum and 14 percent for Chiles.

Is Gov. Charlie Crist reaching out to national Democratic leaders? With rumors flying that Crist, who is an independent candidate for the U.S. Senate, is talking to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid about caucusing with the Democrats if elected, the campaign team of former House Speaker Marco Rubio, the likely Republican nominee, is demanding to know what is going on.

Rep. Bill Posey challenged Securities and Exchange Commission Chairwoman Mary Schapiro over what he called the agency's "decade of indifference or ineptitude" in the Bernie Madoff investigation. Demanding to know what happened to up to 50 departed SEC investigators and examiners, Posey, R-Rockledge, likened the situation to "letting a pedophile slink out of a neighborhood and saying everything is OK. "Stealing is still stealing, even if the government is in on the deal," Posey said.

Former Rep. Loranne Ausley, the Democratic candidate for state CFO, is using the short special session on Tuesday to take aim at her Republican opponent -- Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach. This week, we witnessed a complete failure of leadership and a complete waste of taxpayer dollars, said Ausley. The gavel-and-go strategy was nothing more than a charade and an attempt to play partisan political games without addressing the real problems facing real families and real businesses who are hurting as a result of the spill.