As Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson ramps up his 2012 re-election campaign, a "nonpartisan" group is working to soften up his Republican competition.

Progress Florida launched a website -- DirtyHari.org -- to attack state Sen. Mike Haridopolos, Nelson's first announced GOP opponent. The PF-sponsored site, which bears the fetching headline, "Haridopolos Exposed," assails the Senate president for his "cushy UF teaching gig," "extreme positions" and "double-dipper hypocrisy."

Inspired by large protests in Wisconsin, government workers are setting the social-media network aflame with plans for public demonstrations in Florida on March 8.

"Category 5 starting in Miami-Dade County and it will not stop!" Mike Medina, a member of the Miami police union, wrote on Facebook.

"March 8 Tallahassee -- greet the governor and legislators on opening day to let them know that you will not stand for changing our laws in favor of special interests," urged Paula House Eisenhart in another posting.

Teachers and Democratic legislators fired a shot across the bow of government reformers when they walked off their jobs last week in Wisconsin.

Public-employee unions and their Democratic Party allies are enraged at Republican Gov. Scott Walker's proposals to curb collective bargaining and to require that workers shoulder a larger share of their pension and health-care costs.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott also is calling for pension reform -- requiring a 5 percent employee contribution and introducing 401(k)-style plans for new workers.

Gov. Rick Scott's rejection of high-speed rail may have laid the groundwork for derailing a Central Florida commuter train.

SunRail, a planned $1.2 billion line running through four counties, doesn't have the sex appeal of a high-speed train, but it has strong political ties to state GOP leaders.

"High-speed rail was President Obama's train. SunRail is the Republicans' train," says Matthew Falconer, an Orlando-based commercial real-estate owner who ran for Orange County mayor last year.

Transportation need not be a partisan issue, but Democrats are steering it that way as they reflexively attack Gov. Rick Scott's rejection of federal stimulus dollars for a controversial high-speed rail line.

Progress Florida, a "progressive" but nominally nonpartisan group, declared that Scott's decision was driven by a desire "to make President Obama look bad."

Florida Democrats, including U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown and Sen. Bill Nelson, expressed predictably partisan "outrage" and shock that the governor pulled the plug on the nascent venture.

The time-(dis)honored tradition of big-city mayors buying votes doesn't appear to be working for Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez.

A citizen revolt, led by South Florida auto magnate Norman Braman, has Alvarez up for recall on March 15. With polls showing him losing, Alvarez is fighting to block the election in court.

But the mayor's previous legal gambits have failed, and the once-popular politician faces a stunning fall from grace.