Attorney General Pam Bondi's impassioned stand last week against turning Florida's $334 million mortgage-fraud settlement into raises for state employees was nothing less than heroic.

President Obama has invited a U.N.-affiliate, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), to "monitor" our nation's November elections.

Republican David Rivera may live in a swirling black hole of legal problems and corruption allegations, but political analysts who know him and his South Florida district are raising a yellow flag: Don't count the freshman congressman out.

Rivera, 48, considered the incumbent in the newly redrawn CD 26, is up against party-line Democrat Joe Garcia -- a candidate he beat handily in 2010.

But less than four weeks from the general election, Rivera -- a former state representative -- is losing his bid for re-election.

Congressional District 22 -- rock-ribbed conservative Adam Hasner vs. outspoken liberal Lois Frankel -- has something many districts do not: more than a quarter of its voters are up for grabs. They don't belong to any party.

Yet, a Sunshine State News Poll of 750 likely voters in the district shows that only 6 percent of the undecideds remain that way.

Conducted by Voter Survey Service (VSS) of Harrisburg, Pa. on Oct. 14-16, the poll puts Republican Hasner and Democrat Frankel dead even at 47 percent.

In conjunction with Voter Survey Service (VSS) of Harrisburg, Pa., Sunshine State News will release survey results and analyses in two of Florida's most fiercely contested congressional races on Thursday and Friday

VSS, a division of Susquehana Polling and Research Inc., is the same firm that in 2010 conducted some of the most accurate polls taken of races in the Florida primary and general election.

For the nearly two years Ken Pruitt was president of the Florida Senate, when most of the press labored to ignore his statesmanship, Don Gaetz was paying close attention. He admired the Port St. Lucie Republican's leadership style and said so Tuesday.

In fact, he said he wants to be president the Ken Pruitt way when he takes over officially next month.

"Ken Pruitt is one of my heroes," Gaetz told members of the Tallahassee press corps during an informal luncheon in the Capitol.

There's dirty and then there's blatantly dishonest.

Republicans involved in the District 42 House race between Republican Michael LaRosa and Democrat Eileen Game say the Democratic Party of Florida is deliberately attempting to trick voters into believing they're voting for Rep. Mike Horner, the candidate who resigned on Sept. 24 and is no longer in the race.

Woe is the Democrat who thinks Rick Scott is chopped liver in 2014.

As it happens, this judicial independence business is all baloney. It plain doesn't exist.

Former Republican presidential candidate John McCain -- always popular among fellow veterans -- turned up in Tallahassee at a packed American Legion Post Wednesday, campaigning for Mitt Romney.

Winning Florida is vital for Romney, said McCain. The Republican U.S. senator from Arizona challenged the veterans in the room to spend a half hour a day over the next month calling people and working to support Romneys campaign.