Former Assistant State Attorney Pam Bondi scored a big endorsement in the battle for the Republican attorney general nomination on Thursday when she received the backing of the Associated Industries of Florida PAC. AIF chose Bondi over Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp and former Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Holly Benson.

Republican U.S. Rep. Connie Mack weighed in on the Wall Street reform bill that passed the U.S. House yesterday and ripped into Democrats for abandoning free market principles.

The Democratic Leadership continues to push so-called reform through Congress that does little more than trample all over the free market, said Mack. From health care to campaign finance, and now to the financial sector, the Democrats are charging ahead with bigger and more intrusive government.

The $25 million given to the state tourism industry by BP for a marketing campaign to combat negative press created by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is not enough, and Gov. Charlie Crist is asking for $50 million more.

In a letter to BP America Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles, Crist said that the state has deployed all the BP tourism money.

The Florida Pipe Trades union backed independent Gov. Charlie Crist in the race for the U.S. Senate on Wednesday. The union represents 11 local chapters with more than 10,000 members. This was a blow for U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek who is seeking the Democratic nomination in the race and won the state AFL-CIO endorsement earlier in June.

The campaign team for former House Speaker Marco Rubio, the leading Republican in the race, weighed in on the endorsement.

Already under pressure from former Leon County Democratic Chairman Rick Minor who is challenging her in the primary, Rep. Michelle Rehwinkel-Vasilinda, D-Tallahassee, is now drawing fire from Republican opponent Ann Yarko.

Yarko blasted the incumbent for proposing to raise taxes.

With the financial reform bill about to come up to a vote in Congress, the campaign team for Republican congressional candidate Craig Miller is wondering why incumbent U.S. Rep. Suzanne Kosmas, a Democrat, is having a fund-raising dinner hosted by financial services professionals.

Interesting tactic from the Florida Democratic Party--theyre using the power of the internet to research into the criminal case being brought against former Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer.

This is the first time in Florida that a political party has combined new media efforts with crowd sourcing methods to augment our work to hold Republicans accountable, continuing the Florida Democratic Partys innovative use of the internet as an organizing tool, said Democratic spokesman Eric Jotkoff.

A day after backing Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp for attorney general, conservative leader John Stemberger, president and general counsel of the Florida Family Policy Council, endorsed Attorney General Bill McCollum for the Republican gubernatorial nomination over health care executive Rick Scott.

The U.S. Department of Labor is promising $7 million for the training and placement of workers in Florida who lost their jobs due to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The money is part of an allotment of $27 million given to Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi, the four Gulf states seeing their tourism industries take a hit from the spill.

The Yes on 9 Campaign group, supporting the proposed constitutional amendment allowing Floridians to opt out of new federal health care laws backed by President Barack Obama, offered strong words of praise to Attorney General Bill McCollum for opposing a lawsuit seeking to remove the proposed amendment from the November ballot. McCollum is running for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.