WASHINGTON -- Novelist John Grisham could hardly spin a more provocative fiction: The president and his surrogates mount an aggressive campaign to intimidate the chief justice of the United States, implying ruin and ridicule should he fail to vote in a pivotal case according to the ruling political party's wishes.

The three Florida Supreme Court justices seeking to hold onto their seats hit a bump in the road in Hillsborough County last weekend.

In a straw poll conducted by the Hillsborough County Republican Party, none of the justices facing statewide retention votes in November garnered even close to the simple majority required. The results were these:

Senate President-designate Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, has already snagged three big names from inside the capital circle to help run his office through the 2013 and 2014 legislative sessions.

Lisa Vickers, who recently stepped down as director of the Florida Department of Revenue, has been hired to be Gaetzs senior adviser. Carol Gormley, who previously worked for former Gov. Jeb Bush, is coming over from the House where she was staff director for the Health and Human Services Committee.She will serve as senior policy advisory on health care for Gaetz.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Miami, has teamed with Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and others in an unlikely Washington alliance that seeks to expand on the Jobs Act signed into law earlier this year.

The Startup Act 2.0, a proposal by Rubio, Warner, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., and Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., is intended to aid new businesses, with an emphasis on those involving science, technology, engineering and math, as a means to boost the economy.