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

Less than an hour before squaring off in a debate with Republican gubernatorial rival Rick Scott that will be broadcast by Univision 23 in Miami, Attorney General Bill McCollum unveiled his team to pull in Hispanic votes. McCollums efforts will be led by former Republican Party of Florida Chairman Al Cardenas and includes three members of Congress -- Ileana Ros-Lehtinen andMario and Lincoln Diaz-Balart --as well as Jeb Bush Jr.

The debate over debates continues between the two candidates battling it out for the Democratic attorney general nomination. Last week, Sen. Dan Gelber of Miami Beach proposed to Sen. Dave Aronberg to have debates in each one of Floridas 11 media markets. Aronberg shot down the request and said it was a political stunt. He said two debates would be more realistic. The Gelber camp upped the ante on Monday with the candidate sending Aronberg an e-mail, sticking to his guns -- wanting 11 debates in the next three weeks until the primary.

A new poll from Gallup compares the political views of residents of all 50 states -- and reinforces how pivotal Florida is in any national political battle. Asking more than 90,000 Americans about their politics over the first half of 2010, Gallup has Florida right in the middle when it comes to ideology and identification with one political party or the other. The poll found 38.5 percent of Sunshine State voters are Republicans while 46.2 percent are Democrats.

Bill McCollum might be feeling pretty good this week about receiving the editorial endorsements of the Tampa Tribune and the Miami Herald. But he and Republicans should carefully consider these "friends."