Not long ago, it seemed a dead certainty that the only thing threatening Charlie Crist's march to a seat in the U.S. Senate in 2010 was a giant hurricane that left Florida taxpayers on the hook for a huge property-damage payout, thanks to the takeover of the insurance industry by the governor and his allies in the Legislature. As it turns out, other political ill winds are stirring. ...more

December 19, 2009

The Pasco County Legislative Delegation's annual meeting for the 2010 regular session will not be held until later January. ...more

December 2, 2009

State Senate President Jeff Atwater has sent legislators a summary of new legislation on the controversial SunRail proposal, to be debated in a special legislative session starting Thursday morning. ...more

December 1, 2009

State Senate President Jeff Atwater told senators the new legislation would set up a set up a statewide authority similar to the state Turnpike Enterprise to oversee rail transit systems, and solve the problems that led to SunRail's defeat in the last two legislative sessions. ...more

November 30, 2009

No one ever lost an election or a vote in the Legislature overestimating Mike Fasano's charm. Whatever other skills the veteran lawmaker and current state senator brings to a political showdown, he packs them in a velvet glove. ...more

November 25, 2009

In another political blow to Gov. Charlie Crist, dissension in the state Republican Party broke open Thursday as a group of party officials demanded an "emergency" meeting to discuss party problems, apparently including grievances against Chairman Jim Greer. ...more

November 13, 2009

What's with Charlie Crist? The self-styled "people's governor," one of Florida's most popular political figures and certainly one of its most likeable, seems to have lost his touch. ...more

November 13, 2009

We've given Gov. Charlie Crist grief for pledging during the 2006 Republican gubernatorial primary that he would govern along the conservative lines of the man he was seeking to replace, Jeb Bush, and then lurching to the left after he was elected. His enthusiastic backing of the Legislature's decision to have the state, in effect, take over the property insurance industry in Florida was one example of un-Jeb-ish behavior. Another was the governor's backing of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus program. The media has been referring to that support for months without a peep of protest from Crist - until Wednesday. ...more

November 7, 2009

In a heated race for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination, Gov. Charlie Crist keeps moving away from his support of President Barack Obama's stimulus package that the governor called "fantastic" and "remarkable" when lobbying for its passage. ...more

November 6, 2009

Gov. Charlie Crist is saying he did not endorse the $787 billion federal stimulus bill, a statement that might confuse some voters. ...more

November 5, 2009