After 10 Glorious Years, Sunshine State News and I Are Passing the Baton

Organizing for America, a group with close ties to President Barack Obama, sent an e-mail on Tuesday urging Florida Democrats to vote for U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek over Jeff Greene in the Democratic primary on Tuesday for the U.S. Senate election.

Within hours of receiving -- and touting -- the Florida TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party endorsement, Rick Scott obliterated all references to it. The TEA endorsement, announced this morning and relayed statewide by a Scott campaign e-mail blast, disappeared into the ether after other tea party groups called to complain.

Thomas Chalifoux, a candidate for State House District 79, is suing Rep. Mike Horner, R-Kissimmee, over a mailer that said Chalifoux defaulted on a $200,000 mortgage and is being foreclosed on. Records show that Chalifoux held a lien on the aforementioned property and was only notified as an interested party.He was neither the owner nor the debtor. Chalifoux filed a libel suit in the 9th Judicial Circuit Court in Osceola County, stating that Horner used a 527 shadow group to intentionally defame him. Chalifoux is asking for compensatory damages.

While Rep. David Rivera, R-Miami, is the front-runner for the Republican nomination to replace U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart in Congress, he has been at the center of a number of controversies lately --from chargesabout hitting a truck full of his opponents mailings in 2002 to a domestic violence incident, both of which Rivera hotly disputes. One of his opponents for the Republican nomination, attorney Marili Cancio, is hitting Rivera in a television commercial released on Sunday.It may be too late in the campaign to boost Cancio but Rivera has gotten a load of bad press lately.