In coming days, Mitt Romney will be taking a page from the gameplan of a winning presidential candidate when he visits crucial battleground states on a bus tour. The gameplan first was carried out by Democratic candidate Bill Clinton in 1992.
The battle for the Florida state Senate seat currently held by term-limited Sen. Steve Wise, R-Jacksonville, is heating up as the two leading Republicans in the race unveiled major endorsements on Monday.
Bernie Machen, University of Florida president, on Friday announced he plans to retire next year, though he said he wants to remain at the university as a professor.
Machen, who became president in early 2004, said at the university's board of trustees meeting that he will remain at the helm until the board completes a search for his successor. Trustees chairman David Brown said that search would start this summer, with a goal of finding a successor before the end of 2013.
Machen's contract would have been up at the end of 2013.
During a brief break in a meeting last week of the Florida A&M University board of trustees, President James Ammons was weighing his options.
Several trustees had spoken in support of a motion of no-confidence offered against Ammons for his seeming lack of leadership as the university has dealt with one problem after another, including the hazing death of a drum major in its iconic Marching 100 band. The board would shortly vote on the motion, which ended up passing 8-4.
The field is set for the 2012 election after candidates made their intentions officially known this week by qualifying for races including 160 legislative seats and 27 congressional spots up for grabs following the once-a-decade redistricting exercise.
Candidates weren't the only ones stewing over the upcoming elections. Gov. Rick Scott this week took the initiative in a simmering battle over voter rolls in Florida as he continued his joust with the Department of Justice over Republican-led efforts to keep noncitizens from voting in the fall.
WASHINGTON -- For the past year, we've been relentlessly reminded that Republicans didn't especially love their front-running presidential candidate.
We pundits have been busy crunching the results in last Tuesday's Wisconsin recall election and have noted that the public-employee unions sustained a huge defeat.
Expect a highly active campaign season now that qualifying has come to an end.
Only a single member of the states congressional delegation, U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Lakeland, managed to avoid a primary or general election challenger, while eight state senators technically won re-election because no one filed to challenge them.
The qualifying deadline came to an end Friday.
