No wonder a candidate doesn't want to be called a "liberal," or see his name linked to the "tea party." According to a Rasmussen Reports 1,000-likely-voter poll, voters across the nation still see those as the two most negative political labels.

Of the two, the "tea party" label is considered the worse, with 44 percent of those polled in a telephone survey calling the t-words bad news; 26 percent say they're positive words; another 26 percent think of them as somewhere in between.

In conjunction with Voter Survey Service (VSS) of Harrisburg, Pa., Sunshine State News will release survey results and analyses in two of Florida's most fiercely contested congressional races on Thursday and Friday

VSS, a division of Susquehana Polling and Research Inc., is the same firm that in 2010 conducted some of the most accurate polls taken of races in the Florida primary and general election.

Thursday's Sunshine State News Poll offers a snapshot of the CD 22 race between Democrat Lois Frankel and Republican Adam Hasner.

Bob Crowder, the Martin County sheriff who lost to Allen West in the District 18 Republican congressional primary, is going to back the Democrat in the general election, Patrick Murphy.

Well, sort of.

It's actually his wife Debbie who stepped out in front of her husband and released the statement. "While he was unable to compete against West's millions in out-of-state tea party money ...Bob was committed to giving Republican voters a choice in the primary, rather than letting the party dictate who our representative would be," she said.

In an announcement Tuesday by the state Financial Services Commission, Drew Breakspear has been appointed commissioner for the the Florida Office of Financial Regulation (OFR). He will begin the new job Nov. 5.

According to the press release, Breakspear, who lives in Naples, brings more than 40 years of experience to the OFR, having worked in the international banking industry and management consulting.

My goal is to continue promoting a stronger, healthier financial industry, combating fraud, and showcasing the exceptional work at this agency, he said.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott has been singled out for commendation and named an "outstanding tax reformer" in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal.

Writing for the Wall Street Journal Tuesday, Chris Edwards bemoans members of Congress for creating an economic mess with "chronic overspending and inability to deliver stable, pro-growth tax policies."

But, says Edwards, around the country are a few guys who who are making real fiscal progress -- and they're all in state capitols. Chief among them: Rick Scott.

The new Pew Research Center poll -- placing Mitt Romney ahead of Barack Obama by 4 points -- is perhaps the strongest evidence to date that the president has paid a political price for his lackluster performance in the first presidential debate, the debate closest to the hearts of voters.

The debate on the economy.

To help Florida small businesses focus on year-end tax planning strategies, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater announced on Monday a free webinar, giving participants a choice of three different dates.

Called Tax Facts: A Guide for Small Business Owners, the event is part of Atwater's Money Matters initiative that follows up on his Small Business Leadership Forum in September. The Department of Financial Services is collaborating with the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants (FICPA).

Brian Crowley, handler of the three Florida Supreme Court justices up for retention, apparently figures he's found the winning recipe for Team Supreme -- and he's dishing it all out today.

Here's how you keep your judicial candidates in their jobs:

You set Justices Barbara Pariente, R. Fred Lewis and Peggy Quince down in a law school, in a 3 o'clock Friday afternoon forum -- same school where "Taj Mahal Paul" Hawkes serves as an adjunct professor, by the way -- and you preach to the converted over cucumber sandwiches.

Some challenge.

This is the one! This, Romney fans, is what you've been longing to see but maybe never knew it. It's the YouTube video that went viral overnight.

Here she is, a former nun, an Army major, a lawyer, a college professor and a physician. Now Dr. Barbara Bellar, obviously a Republican, wants to be a state senator from Illinois, and she has one question about Obamacare:

What the blank could possibly go wrong?

That's what she asks after delivering a mind-blowing, bitingly witty one-sentence indictment of President Obama's health care law.

International survey research firm McLaughlin & Associates warns that even if Mitt Romney jacks it out of the park during tonight's debate, and President Obama lays an egg the size of a frying pan, it won't matter. Romney will still lose the post-debate swing state polls.