While he is not getting much attention for his efforts, U.S.Rep. Kendrick Meek, the likely Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, released an op-ed calling the Obama administrations budget cuts to the space program unacceptable. While originally run earlier in the month, the column was carried again today.

Former state Senate President Tom Lee is back in the public eye and thats not exactly good news for his fellow Republicans. Last night, Lee told the Hillsborough County League of Women Voters that the party is at an all-time low and that Gov. Crist will have a tough time rebuilding party morale. Lee also took issue with the Republicans naming stateRep.

Marco Rubio stated that he would release his RPOF credit card expenses if other GOP leaders did the same thing. Unfortunately for Rubio, his got released for him.

Janet Cruz is the newest member of the Florida House of Representatives after defeating Republican candidate Hunter Chamberlin in a special election held on Tuesday, February 23.

Heres something you dont see every day; a politician running for office who wants the post to have less authority. But thats exactly what state Senator Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, is advocating.

State Rep. Pat Patterson, R-DeLand, is running for the state CFO post. Really. Sure, Patterson had no presence at the Republican convention in Orlando last weekend. Never mind that Pattersons rival for the GOP nomination state Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, has $1.6 million as opposed to the $64,135.17 that Patterson raised (of which $40,000 came from Pattersons previous campaigns). Ignore the fact that the Patterson for CFO websites latest news is that he launched the campaign back on July 1. Pat Patterson insists that he is running for CFO.

George LeMieux might only be a recent addition to the U.S. Senate but he is already acting like a veteran of the Beltway. On February 22, LeMieux joined a majority of his fellow Republicans in voting against cloture for the Obama administration jobs bill, trying to keep it off the Senate floor. The measure passed due to a number of Republicans, most notably new U.S. Senator Scott Brown, R-Mass, voting with the Democrats. Having voted to keep the bill off the floor, LeMieux then supported the jobs package as it passed the Senate on February 24.

The St. Petersburg Times broke the story that Julie Hauserman has been named as campaign manager for the Florida Hometown Democracy measure on the ballot in November. Of course as Hauserman used to serve as a reporter covering environmental and political issues for the Times, they may have had an exclusive. The measure, listed on the November ballot as Amendment 4, would require direct voter approval of any local land-use changes instead of leaving it in the hands of city and county commissioners.

At the Republican convention in Orlando last weekend, Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp revealed that he has been talking to Gov. Charlie Crist about aggressively weighing in on President Obamas plan to scrap NASAs plans for manned flights to the moon. Kottkamp stressed that the budget cutswould mean the loss of at least 7,000 jobs directly on the Space Coast with 13,000 jobs being lost indirectly. As one of his duties in the Crist administration, Kottkamp serves as Chairman of the Space Florida Board of Directors.

Earlier this afternoon, state Rep. Eric Fresen, R-Miami, pulled out of thecontest to be the leader of the Republican House conference for the 2014-2016 legislative session. This means that state Rep. Chris Dorworth, R-Lake Mary, is going to be state House Speaker in four years. Yes, you read that right. Florida now has a House Speaker waiting in the wings for four years down the road.

Today I feel like a kid again wide-eyed, heart thumping, ready to get the show on the road. Its as if the whole family is climbing aboard a bus and starting a journey thats been in our head for as long as we can remember.

Florida's been languishing in darkeness for too long. For too long we've had to rely on the mainstream media to deliver bias views of the important politics of our state. For too long, we've watched the other journalists simply chase each other's tale. Following the pack just doesn't work for us anymore.