The Florida Pipe Trades union, representing more than 12,000 Floridians, announced on Monday that it was backing Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, for attorney general. The members of the Florida Pipe Trades are proud to endorse Senator Dan Gelber in his campaign for attorney general, said Florida Pipe Trades union rep John Lindstrom. The union endorsed Gov. Charlie Crist for the U.S. Senate earlier in the month.

Former House Speaker Marco Rubio, the likely Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate election, released a Web video on Monday morning blasting rival independent candidate Gov. Charlie Crist for calling a special session of the Legislature next week.

The finance numbers for the second quarter of 2010, which ended on June 30, are slowly creeping in from political campaigns across the state. With federal campaign reports due in by July 15, some of the figures are now available. State candidates report their figures later in the month.

Former Tallahassee Mayor Scott Maddox, the Democratic candidate for state agriculture and consumer services commissioner, praised U.S. Sen. Bill Nelsons bill, authorizing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to study the ecological and other impacts the oil spill in the Gulf will have in the years to come.

The campaign team for Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott lashed into their chief rival for the GOP nomination, Attorney General Bill McCollum, in very harsh terms. Joe Kildea, a spokesman for the Scott campaign, blasted McCollum for his campaigns newest ad.

A group of Florida officials gathered Saturday in Brevard County to discuss ideas for the Presidential Task Force on Space Industry Workforce and Economic Development. Among the proposals: supporting small businesses and new entrepreneurs, encouraging additional federal procurement work and ensuring that policies are in place to maximize the growth of emerging industries. The Space Coast faces the loss of 15,000 direct and indirect jobs as a result of the retirement of the space shuttle program.

The Florida TEA Party has replaced two sidetracked legislative candidates to bring its slate back up to 21 hopefuls statewide. Osceola business owner Johnny Ferentinos qualified for House District 11 and Central Florida business owner John Perez qualified for House District 91. "Both districts lost their original TEA party nominees with one withdrawal based on Republican Party of Florida threats and thuggery. The other candidate had to withdraw due to accepting new employment with the federal government," according to a TEA press release.

Visit Florida, the state's public-private marketing corporation, has started offering any tourism business a free listing on its Web site, billed as the nation's top destination marketing Web site. Before the Friday announcement, Visit Florida's listings werefree only for its 34,000 partners.

Attorney General Bill McCollum's campaign team just released a memo revealing details on debates with Rick Scott -- McCollum's main rival for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

Likely Republican U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubios campaign team continues to attack Gov. Charlie Crist for calling a special session of the Legislature to forward a proposed constitutional amendment to Florida voters banning oil drilling in state waters.

Charlie Crist might want to ask himself if the benefits outweigh the costs when it comes to his oil-disaster response. He's being criticized by both Republicans and Democrats for limiting the special session to only focusing on a constitutional ban on oil drilling. The fact is, it's already illegal to drill for oil off Florida's coast (something Crist himself admitted in an interview on Fox News). Even if the ban had been in place before April, it wouldn't have done anything to prevent the BP oil disaster.

With basketball superstar LeBron James announcing on Thursday night that he would join fellow free agents Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in signing with the Miami Heat, Floridians are rolling out the red carpet. Christina De Nicola over at Bleacher Report compiled a list of 10 ways the James signing will impact Miami and its economy.

Former House Speaker Marco Rubio, the leading Republican candidate in the race for the U.S. Senate, is celebrating the fact that his campaign has more followers on Facebook than the Democratic National Committee -- or any other candidate across the nation running for theSenate.

Incoming Senate Minority Leader Nan Rich, D-Sunrise, announced she is backing Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, for attorney general over another member of her caucus, Sen. Dave Aronberg of Greenacres.

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Greenes campaign team is taking aim at Gov. Charlie Crist and oil drilling as well as the rest of the field in the race.