While he may have passed on jumping into the Republican primary to challenge incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, Florida CFO Jeff Atwater raised his profile last week with a series of national media appearances.

Atwater appeared Wednesday on Fox Business where he was asked about the state of Floridas housing market. The state CFO insisted that things are better and pointed to the lowering of taxes -- namely corporate and property taxes -- in the state.

A poll from NBC News and Marist College of Florida voters released on Thursday shows, in contrast to surveys from Quinnipiac University unveiled this week, President Barack Obama and Democrat incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson are slightly ahead of their Republican challengers in the Sunshine State.

While a poll from Quinnipiac showed presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney leading in Florida, the NBC News/Marist poll has Obama taking 48 percent while Romney follows with 44percent.

Geo Group spent between $60,000 and $89,997 on three lobbying firms -- Ericks Consultants, Mirabella Smith and McKinnon Inc., and Ronald L. Book PA -- in the first quarter of the year.

Geos priority was to advance the bidding process to privatize prisons.

Another advocate of prison privatization was Corrections Corporation of America, which paid Smith BryanMyers Inc. between $10,000 and $19,999 in the quarter.

The effort failed to win Senate approval.

Gov. Rick Scott is gaining ground with Florida voters, according to a poll released Thursday by Quinnipiac University.

While Scott is still upside down with voters, the poll shows more than 40 percent approving of his performance in Tallahassee. The poll shows 41 percent of those surveyed approving of Scott while 46 percent disapprove of him. A Quinnipiac poll taken at the end of March found a majority, 52 percent, disapproved of Scott, while only 38 percent approved of his tenure as governor.

A poll byQuinnipiac University released Thursday morning shows that U.S. Rep. Connie Mack holds a commanding lead in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate and holds a slight edge over Democrat incumbent Bill Nelson in a possible general election match-up.

"Although some activists have been critical of Congressman Connie Mack and his campaign, he retains an overwhelming lead in the race for the Republican Senate nomination and is tied with Senator Bill Nelson," said Peter Brown, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, on Thursday.

As the recent presidential primaries showed, Republicans disagree on a host of issues. Supporters of Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul see the world very differently from one another.

Yes, this column is based out of Florida, so it would seem that an opinion piece suggesting that Marco Rubio makes the most sense for vice president on the Republican side would normally appear to be "home cooking."

As policymakers study the controversy surrounding the "stand your ground" self-defense law, the issue is drawing interest from a broad swath of the general public.

A town hall meeting on the law drew 200 people to Florida State College in Jacksonville Tuesday night.

Opening his campaign headquarters in Kissimmee, former U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson says he's confident he will earn a return trip to Capitol Hill.

In an exclusive interview with Sunshine State News, the outspoken Democrat said he's raised $2 million from 50,000 contributors since last July.

That's "more than any House challenger in the United States and more than 99 percent of current House members," he reported.