Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott released a new commercial on Friday, pushing his plan to create jobs. In a rarity for a bitter battle against Attorney General Bill McCollum for the GOP nod, the new commercial from the Scott campaign ignored his rival.

Former Assistant State Attorney Pam Bondi, battling it out with Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp and former Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Holly Benson for the Republican nomination for attorney general, launched a new commercial on Friday, labeling her opponents as political insiders and focusing on her record as a prosecutor. Bondi, who has been criticized for being a Democrat for most of the 1980s and '90s, says in the commercial that she will continue Attorney General Bill McCollums legal challenge to new federal health-care laws backed by President Barack Obama.

With new reports out that the nations unemployment rate stands at 9.5 percent, the campaign team of likely Republican U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio is reminding Florida voters that the Obama administration claimed the federal stimulus would lower that rate to 7 percent. The Rubio camp is also reminding voters that Gov. Charlie Crist, running in the Senate race as an independent, backed the Obama stimulus.

Earlier in the week, Sen. Dave Aronberg of Greenacres launched the first television ad in a close battle for the Democratic nomination for attorney general. On Friday, Sen. Dan Gelber of Miami Beach, Aronbergs rival in the race, released his first television ad. The ad plays up Gelbers record as a prosecutor as well as taking shots at Aronberg for attacking Gelber.

The attacks on Aronberg continued in comments from Christian Ulvert, Gelbers campaign manager.

Former House Speaker Marco Rubio, the overwhelming favorite to be the Republican candidate in the U.S. Senate election, released the fourth in his series of web videos proposing ideas on how to reduce federal government spending. In the video released on Friday morning, Rubio called for the passage of a constitutional amendment requiring Congress to balance the budget.

With a little over two weeks to go until the primary on Aug. 24, former Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Holly Benson received a crucial endorsement in her bid for the Republican attorney general nomination that should help her with her base in the Panhandle. U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller announced on Friday that he was backing Benson.

Holly has always known that the answer to our challenges is less government, not more, said Miller. She will use the position of the attorney generals office to help rebuild our economy, and I am proud to support her.

Jeff Greene, in a tight battle with U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek for the Democratic nomination in the U.S. Senate race, launched a new television commercial, offering a biographical sketch. While most of the commercials from both Meek and Greene have been attack ads, this ad is more positive, portraying Greenes career as a Horatio Alger penned rags-to-riches story.

On Friday morning, Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp, locked in a close battle for the Republican nomination in the attorney generals race, came out swinging at a federal court ruling that shot down a law passed in California banning gay marriage.

Wednesdays ruling in California turns on its ear more than 5,000 years of recorded history that establishes marriage is between a man and a woman, said Kottkamp.

Kottkamp called for Attorney General Bill McCollums office to join the appeal to overturn the federal decision.

Health-care executive Rick Scott and Attorney General Bill McCollum, the two leading candidates battling in a bitterly contested battle for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, probably did little to enlighten Florida voters during a Tampa-TV debate Thursday evening.

On Thursday, the U.S. Senate confirmed Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court of the United States on a 63-37 vote -- and Florida politicians are weighing in on the nations fourth female justice.

Floridas two senators followed party lines with Bill Nelson joining most of his fellow Democrats in supporting the nomination, and George LeMieux voting with most of the Republicans against Kagan. Five Republicans crossed party lines to vote for Kagan while Ben Nelson of Nebraska was the one Democrat to vote against her.