With former House Speaker Marco Rubio, the Republican candidate in the race for the U.S. Senate election in November, calling upon his rivals to join him in seven debates, U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, the Democratic nominee, accepted the challenge for five debates and is looking to change dates for the other two.

With Gov. Charlie Crist in the Panhandle on Thursday night, Marco Rubios team made sure there was a Republican to respond to his rival in the U.S. Senate race. The Rubio team called on Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Shalimar, to bash Crist for backing President Barack Obamas federal stimulus.

When Charlie Crist endorsed the stimulus, he promised Floridians it would create more than 200,000 jobs, said Gaetz. Today, 18 months later, instead of creating 200,000 jobs, nearly 200,000 Floridians have lost their jobs.

Gov. Charlie Crist issued executive order 10-191 that will extend his "declaration of a state of emergency due to ongoing economic impact from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill," according to a memorandum from the governor's office issued late Thursday afternoon.

The declaration has been amended so that itcovers only seven of the most affected counties, which include Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Bay, Gulf and Franklin.

Today, the Loranne Ausley for CFO campaign released a video ad attacking Republican Jeff Atwater for his banking experience. The Democratic challenger might not have realized it when her team sent out the press release, but Alex Sink's a banker too. And Sink's banking past isn't exactly a shimmering example of what's good for Florida's economy.

Within hours of the video post, the Republican Party of Florida fired back with a statement.

Former House Speaker Marco Rubio, the Republican nominee in the U.S. Senate race, announced on Thursday that he had accepted seven invitations for debates in September and October and is calling for Democratic nominee U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek and Gov. Charlie Crist, who is running without party affiliation, to join him.

Florida Trend ran a fascinating profile by Amy Keller on U.S. Sen. George LeMieux and offered a glimpse of what his future ambitions are -- adding to the growing speculation that LeMieux could be interested in taking on Bill Nelson in 2012. The article looks into LeMieux building bridges with Republicans at the state and national level. For example, despite his long history with Charlie Crist, LeMieux is backing former House Speaker Marco Rubio, the Republican candidate, over the governor in the U.S. Senate race.

The Cabinet unanimously confirmed Gen. Bob Milligan to serve as the interim executive director of the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs, taking over from LeRoy Collins Jr. who was killed by a car while riding his bike. A former general with the Marines, Milligan has also served as state comptroller, winning election to that office in 1994, and as interim director of the State Board of Administration.

Former House Speaker Marco Rubio, the Republican candidate in Novembers U.S. Senate election, took aim at Gov. Charlie Crist, who is running without party affiliation in the race. The Rubio team released a web video showing a clip of Crist responding Who cares? to a question about which party he will caucus with if he is elected to the Senate. Repeating the clip, the video contains quotes attempting to show that Crist has no principles and puts his personal ambitions above everything else.

In the first poll of the race to show how U.S. Senate candidates are faring since Tuesday's primary, Marco Rubio takes a strong lead over Charlie Crist and Kendrick Meek.

Since the last poll, before the primary, Rubio has come up 2 percentage points while Crist has gone down 3. Meek stayed the same.

From Rasmussen:

"With the results of this new survey, Floridas Senate race moves from Tossup to Leans Republican in the Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 Balance of Power summary."

Independent gubernatorial candidate Bud Chiles, looking to catch up with Democratic nominee state CFO Alex Sink and Republican candidate Rick Scott, ripped into interest groups on Thursday morning as the campaign trail took him to Tampa. Standing in front of an office which is the address of more than 60 current or defunct political organizations, Chiles called for more transparency for PACs, CCEs and 527 groups.