Former Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer wants the state to stop investigating him. Rather, he wants the U.S. Attorney's Office to conduct the probe into alleged misappropriation of party funds. Gov. Charlie Crist, longtime friend of the disgraced RPOF boss, apparently sees things the same way, as he asked Thomas Kirwin, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Florida, to investigate.

Sen. Paula Dockery, who's running for governor, is one of very few Republicans who is opposing SB 6 -- the performance pay bill. But it seems she might be making claims that don't hold a lot of water. PolitiFact.com summarizes it like this: "Dockery said, 'teachers will not be able to return to work after raising their children.' We find there is a provision in SB 6 to prevent this scenario, but because the rules won't be written until after the bill becomes law, we can't definitely say what will happen. We rule Dockery's claim Barely True."

As the House prepares to take up teacher performance pay, I was reminded of a political advertisement that I came across last night. The politician promised to alter the salaries of Floridas teachers, offer more transparency in government, make our public universities a priority and do it all without raising taxes. Bill McCollum? Alex Sink? Paula Dockery? Jeff Kottkamp? Dan Gelber? Jeff Atwater? Keep guessing. The ad was actually from Fuller Warrens gubernatorial campaign back in 1948. The more things change...

Paula Dockery kept up her anti-establishment campaign this week by blasting her party's leaders' "slush funds." Dockery, who is challenging Attorney General Bill McCollum for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, praised Gov. Charlie Crists veto of the Leadership Fund bill. I congratulate Gov. Charlie Crist for standing up to legislative leaders and vetoing a bill that would have allowed them to create slush funds for influencing elections across the state," the senator from Lakeland said in a release.

State CFO Alex Sink announced today that she has raised $1.1 million in the first quarter of 2010 for her gubernatorial bid. While GOP frontrunner Attorney General Bill McCollum pulled in $1.4 million during that same time, Sink now has raised more than $6.2 million for the campaign and has more than $5 million cash in hand -- a considerable advantage over McCollum, who has raised a total of $4.7 million and has around $4 million cash in hand.

Despite overheming opposition from South Floridians, Sen. Joe Negron's bill to allow voters to decide every six years whether to close or continue their local Children's Services Council passed the Senate Community Affairs Commitee Wednesday. Negron is in trouble in his Republican-dominated home district, which encompasses northern Palm Beach County, most of Martin County and parts of St. Lucie and Indian River Counties, over the bill, and the furor was on display at the standing-room-only meeting this morning.

Looking for confirmation that Marco Rubio is the GOP frontrunner for the U.S. Senate primary? Besides receiving the backing of former NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani earlier this week, Rubio just announced that his campaign has hauled in $3.6 million in the first quarter of 2010. This is over twice the amount that Rubio brought in during the last quarter of 2009 when he raked in $1.75 million.

Attorney General Bill McCollum just announced that his gubernatorial campaign has reeled in $1.4 million during the first quarter of 2010. This is the same amount that he raised in the last quarter of 2009. This means that McCollum has now raised $4.7 million for his campaign.

Crist has vetoed legislation allowing presiding House and Senate leaders to create fundraising committees for candidates, and Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, is calling him out. The legislation would have created Affiliated Party Committtees, which allow the Senate president, House speaker and minority leaders to set up fundraising committees for candidates in their political parties. Critics have said the committees will resurrect "leadership funds," unregulated slush funds banned in the state for 20 years.

Dodgertown, the former spring-training home of the Los Angeles Dodgers, is primed to see its biggest crowd in years. Marco Rubio is coming to Vero Beach. The Indian River County Tea Party has lined up the GOP gubernatorial candidate as keynote speaker for its Tax Day rally on April 16. The free event runs from noon to 1 p.m. Plan on arriving early. Last year's rally, held in front of the county administration building, drew more than 2,000 people. Organizers in the staunchly Republican county are expecting bigger attendance numbers in this election year.

Having garnered the endorsements of former Gov. Jeb Bush and the Associated Builders & Contractors of Florida in March, U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam reported that he raised $280,000 in the first quarter of 2010 for his campaign to become the states next agriculture and consumer services commissioner. Putnam has now raised over $1.2 million for the campaign. With Sen. Carey Baker, R-Eustis, having ended his campaign earlier in the year, Putnam faces no opposition in the Republican primary.

The House passed a 3 day sales tax holiday running from August 13 until August 15 without opposition. During that time, books, clothes, shoes and bookbags under $50 and school supplies under $10 would be exempt from sales tax. We have record unemployment, record foreclosures, record drops in property prices and record deficits, said Rep. David Rivera, R-Miami, who introduced the bill. The people of Florida need tax relief and they need it now.

U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek is taking advantage of the Congressional recess to focus on his bid to become the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate. While Meek will be focusing on jobs during this campaign swing, he is making a stop on Wednesday in Orlando to talk to the Florida Baptist Convention Political Forum.

Speaker Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, addressed more than 30 realtors from Marion and Alachua Counties in the House chamber early this afternoon, and he addressed a number of issues. Cretul offered an assessment of future challenges, reminding the audience that the end of the federal stimulus funding would leave a $5 billion hole in the Florida budget. Asked about the impact of the federal health-care legislation passed last month, Cretul said that the new law would cost Floridians $1.5 billion a year initially before leveling to $1 billion thereafter.

Did someone misplace their lawmaker handbook? The Senate session was riddled with confusion this morning, as some members found themselves befuddled by the process of grafting the Senate and House budgets together in advance of next week's budget conference. The procedural process on the Senate floor today takes House appropriations bills not on the Senate's proposed budget plan and transfers them onto the Senate plan, unchanged. No substantive action is taken. That's left for the conference sessions next week.