Jon Costello is comfortable where he is right now.
His wife Nicole just gave birth to their second son, hes putting the finishing touches together on the syllabus for his fall graduate course in political communications at Florida State University, and hes just completed a second session as legislative affairs director for Gov. Rick Scott.
Several congressional candidates in Florida have been tripped up by arcane rules governing their qualifying petitions, Sunshine State News has learned.
In lieu of paying a $10,000 fee to get on the ballot, candidates can gather 2,298 signatures from registered voters to qualify for the upcoming elections.
Karen Harrington, seeking the Republican nomination to run against Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fort Lauderdale, started circulating petitions last year. The signatures were collected quickly, but then hit a snag.
State leaders say nothing will be done half-cocked by the task force named Thursday to review the Stand Your Ground law likely to be used as a defense in the Feb. 26 shooting of Trayvon Martin.
Gov. Rick Scott and Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, in announcing the 17 members of the Citizens Safety and Protection Task Force on Thursday, said the panels series of statewide meetings that will be conducted throughout the summer and fall will have a slow and deliberate focus on measures involving public safety.
The vice presidency of the United States has often been held by some of the more obscure and forgettable politicians in American history -- including the likes of George M. Dallas, Garrett Hobart and James Sunny Jim Sherman.
Even some of the men who held that office have recognized the pitfalls of being a heartbeat away from the presidency. Thomas Marshall, the Indiana politician who served as vice president under Woodrow Wilson, noted, Once there were two brothers: one ran away to sea, the other was elected vice president -- and nothing was ever heard from either of them again.
Having all but sewn up the Republican presidential nomination, Mitt Romney is on President Barack Obamas heels according to a national poll of registered voters released Thursday by Quinnipiac University.
The poll has Obama leading with 46 percent followed by Romney with 42 percent. Other recent national polls have shown mixed results with Obama leading some and Romney leading others.
A $2 million veto by Gov. Rick Scott will mean fewer attorneys to represent low-income residents through foreclosure proceedings, domestic violence hearings and consumer fraud cases, legal aid officials and a top Democrat lamented Wednesday.
Unless something unexpected takes place, Florida can already claim the top spot in deciding recent presidential nominations, both for Republicans and Democrats, and is poised to be, along with a handful of states, a pivotal swing state in the November elections.
Web pages bearing the names of three Republican candidates in the 19th Congressional District aren't their websites at all -- and they're not very complimentary.
In fact, the sites -- chaunceygoss.com, kreegelforcongress.com and aubuchonforcongress.com -- blast the candidates with a series of talking points and Internet links.
The faux sites are the latest weapon in a cyber war waged by Trey Radel, a rival GOP hopeful. Each site contains a link to "Friends of Trey Radel," where viewers can see a compendium of complimentary websites and articles about Radel.
With buzz starting to develop that state CFO Jeff Atwater could enter the contest, the leading Republican candidates looking to knock off Democrat incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in November attempted to position themselves and claim momentum in the primary battle.
U.S. Rep. Connie Macks team brought out their candidates father -- former U.S. Sen. Connie Mack III who held the seat for two terms before retiring before the 2000 election cycle -- on Wednesday.
A circuit judge is working against the clock to decide the validity of Florida's newly drawn congressional districts in time for this year's election deadlines.
The deadline for candidates to qualify for the 2012 election cycle is noon, June 8. The primary is set for Aug. 14; the general election is Nov. 6.
The Fair Districts amendments require congressional districts to be compact and follow geographical boundaries, where feasible, and forbid the districts from being drawn to favor incumbents.
