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

For the second time in 30 days, President Barack Obama will be in South Florida to raise campaign cash and deliver a policy talk. Like his March 10 visit to Miami, Obama will appear at a string of fundraisers along the Gold Coast. And as before, he's tacking on a late-developing "official speech" to ensure that the junket's tab is picked up by the taxpayers. Obama reportedly will deliver a speech at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. The White House has released no details on the format of the event, but it's slated to focus on the economy.

Urging Rick Scott not to "follow in the president's footsteps," Americans for Prosperity today called on the governor to veto a state energy bill. Criticizing House Bill 7117, the Florida chapter of AFP wrote: This misguided political ideology of picking winners and losers in the marketplace will undoubtedly continue its pattern of wasting taxpayer money by bankrolling politically-favored energy companies. It leads to crony capitalism and crony politics.

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has taken the lead in Rick Santorums home state of Pennsylvania according to a poll released Thursday from Public Policy Polling, a firm with connections to many prominent Democrats. Romney leads the poll of likely Pennsylvania Republican primary voters with 42 percent, followed by Santorum with 37 percent. Ron Paul takes third with 9 percent, followed by Newt Gingrich with 6 percent.

With 94 delegates to the Republican convention in Tampa, New York is the biggest prize on the table on April 24 when five Northeastern states have their say in the latest round of presidential primaries -- and Empire State Republicans appear to be solidly behind Mitt Romney.