Software company owner Ron Rushing will announce on Tuesday that he is pulling out of the Republican primary to take on Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and will instead offer a primary challenge to Senate Majority Leader Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, in 2012.

In his prepared remarks for Tuesday, Rushing took aim at the lack of progress in Tallahassee for conservative legislation.

A new poll finds Gov. Rick Perry of Texas leading the Republican presidential pack in Florida, with U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts on his heels.

Nine Republican presidential candidates will square off in August at the Iowa straw poll, the first battle in the long campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, but some big names are sitting the event out. With Iowa holding the first presidential caucus, some of the candidates are looking to build momentum in that key state.

Florida Congressman Connie Macks plan to reduce the size and scope of the federal government and balance the budget by 2019 continued to build momentum Friday, as both a U.S. senator and prominent conservative groups backed his One Percent Spending Reduction Act of 2011.

Businessman Craig Miller, who last week entered the Republican primary to take on Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, announced Thursday that he is taking a page out of the old Bob Graham playbook and will be holding Miller on Main Street events.

The first one is scheduled at a pizza parlor in Winter Park next week -- a fitting location for Miller, who once served as CEO of the Uno Restaurant chain best known for its Chicago-style pizza.

Two Florida Republicans -- U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and U.S. Rep. Connie Mack -- seek to make major cuts and changes to American international policy with the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for fiscal year 2012, which they pushed through the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday.

Ros-Lehtinen, the chairwoman of the committee, introduced the bill whichauthorizes almost $6.5 billion less than what President Barack Obama originally proposed.