Two more Republicans have jumped in to challenge Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fort Lauderdale, and Broward County's GOP chairman says a "spirited primary" will help the party "put our best foot forward."

Gineen Bresso and Juan Eliel Garcia joined the Republican contest in the 23rd Congressional District, bringing the number of GOP hopefuls there to six.

Previously announced candidates, as reported by Sunshine State News, are Karen Harrington, Joe Goldner, Joe Kaufman and Ozzie DeFaria.

Presidents Day has passed again with not much more recognition than special sales at the malls of America. What an extra 20 percent off the latest fashions has to do with how important our history is to our present condition and how critical the form and structure of our government is to the well-being of all of us, Ill never know.

Senate President Mike Haridopolos says upcoming budget conference sessions will be fully available to the public.

Everything that is in conference as we position ourselves with our conforming bills and otherwise will be open and transparent in the next two weeks, the Merritt Island Republican told reporters Monday. I know were going to continue that tradition we followed last year.

While Mitt Romney handily defeated John McCain in Michigan in 2008, two polls taken on Sunday show that this years Republican presidential primary Tuesday should be much closer.

Despite being born there and his fathers tenure as governor of the state, Romney tumbled in the polls in the Great Lakes State after he lost to Rick Santorum in contests in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri earlier in the month. Some polls even showed Santorum ahead of Romney by double digits.

With the backing of Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, polls show Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney appears poised to win the primary in the Grand Canyon State on Tuesday.

If you were listening reasonably carefully to last Wednesday's Republican presidential candidate debate, you heard Rick Santorum say, "Charles Murray just wrote a book about this."

Recently, two pieces of proposed legislation Senate Bill, SB 1506 and SB 1316 were amended to include dangerous provisions that would allow nonmedical doctors, specifically optometrists, to prescribe and administer systemic oral drugs for the first time in the state's history.

The Senate this week passed a budget for the coming year -- but some of its members were focused on another year in the future, as those who want to be Senate president down the road intensified their maneuvering in the face of an increasingly apparent challenge to the chamber's conservative ruling class.

The Senate has long been a place where the in-charge Republican Party has been fractured, with splits between social moderates and conservatives, fiscally conservative members and those less antagonistic to government services, and populists versus the big business wing.

A bill is moving through the Legislature targeting what some lawmakers described as "hired guns" -- expert witnesses testifying in court cases.

The House's 77-34 vote on HB 243 on Friday was a victory for business groups that have lobbied to place more restrictions on experts, whose testimony can be critical in civil and criminal cases that deal with complex scientific evidence.

Rolling under the radar like a Stealth bomber, through committee after insurance committee, are HB 4087 and SB 1152 -- among the worst proposed legislation of the 2012 legislative session.