Politico is reporting that state Rep. Luis Garcia, D-Miami Beach, will challenge Republican U.S. Rep. David Rivera in 2012.

While Garcia, who fled Cuba at an early age, barely held on to his state House seat in 2010, which represents parts of Miami-Dade County, he is no easy mark by any means. Having served as Miami Beach fire chief and having spent more than 50 years in the area, Garcia is well-established in the community.

A new poll found New Hampshire is Mitt Romneys to lose.

A member of the Republican congressional majority from Florida turned up the heat on President Barack Obama to get serious about three free-trade agreements currently stalled in Washington.

U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan urged passage of the agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama. Buchanan, Floridas only member of the Ways and Means Committee, said that the committee was poised to move on the agreements, perhaps as early as next week.

After whiffing on attacking former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts on health care in Monday nights debate, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty attacked the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination over the issue on Friday.

Florida's unemployment rate dropped slightly again in May, falling 0.2 percentage points to 10.6 percent overall, according to numbers released Friday by the state Agency for Workforce Innovation. It's the Sunshine State's lowest unemployment rate since August 2009, when the jobless rate was also 10.6 percent.

The year-over-year decline in the jobless rate is 0.7 percent, and there are 980,000 unemployed workers out of a total work force in the state of 9.25 million. There were 28,000 nonagricultural jobs added in May.

After watching the Republican presidential candidates debate on Monday night, a prominent conservative offered some words of praise for U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas.

Ken Connor, currently with the Center for a Just Society and formerly with the Family Research Council, and well-known to Floridians for leading the state chapter of the Christian Coalition and running for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 1994, on Friday offered his thoughts on the Republican field and had some kind words for Paul.

In the face of a legal challenge from the ACLU of Florida over drug testing state workers, Gov. Rick Scott has slowed down the process for the implementation of the policy, but promised Thursday that he is still "moving forward" with the screenings.

Former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts may be the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination -- but according to a new poll, he is hearing the footsteps of the newest GOP hopeful, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota.

As he continued to campaign and fundraise in the Sunshine State on Thursday, former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts -- the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination -- announced the support of three Florida congressmen and one of the leading figures of the state Senate.

Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan cheered the House Judiciary Committee for forwarding a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution and urged the House leadership to schedule a floor vote as quickly as possible.

"We can't wait any longer," said Buchanan, who has introduced similar measures since first taking his seat in Congress in 2007. "The time is now for Washington to make the tough choices necessary to balance the budget for taxpayers today and for future generations."