I'm going to exercise a new freedom with polling. I'm going to take advantage of my experience with a nonpartisan polling firm to ask Americans some hard-hitting questions that can't in fairness be asked by that nonpartisan firm.

So today I'm introducing the first "Towery Poll" of national issues. That means I don't have to worry if some Democratic polling expert likes it or not!

While Gov. Charlie Crist and gubernatorial candidate Bud Chiles are getting most of the attention, Florida is seeing a large number of independents taking on both the Democrats and Republicans in the 2010 elections.

Its exciting, said Michael Tupper, campaign manager for independent congressional candidate Troy Stanley who has offered a conservative challenge to veteran Republican U.S. Rep. Ander Crenshaw.

A week after announcing that he was planning to run for governor, independent candidate Bud Chiles, son of Florida political icon and long-time U.S. senator and governor Lawton Chiles, kicks off his campaign Saturday morning in Lakeland -- with his fathers legacy front and center.

WASHINGTON -- In announcing the passage of a U.N. Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on Iran, President Obama stressed not once but twice Iran's increasing "isolation" from the world.

Florida anti-abortion activists were making last minute pleas to Gov. Charlie Crist asking him to sign legislation that would require women seeking an abortion to first have an ultrasound and in many cases hear the doctor describe the sonogram.

Florida public schools, faced with fierce competition for students from private schools, raised their scores on standardized tests slightly after the creation of the states business-supported private-school-voucher program, according to a National Bureau of Economic Research report recently released.

According to a poll Quinnipiac University released on Thursday morning, two outsiders with backgrounds in business instead of politics have shaken up Floridas political landscape.

Rick Scott's surge in the Republican gubernatorial primary contest with Bill McCollum provides more evidence of raging anti-incumbent fever.

Scott, a billionaire running his first political campaign, leads Attorney General McCollum 44-31 in the latest Quinnipiac Poll -- a shocking margin, considering that few Floridians even knew there was a Rick Scott a month ago.