Jorge Bonilla, military veteran and Shark Tank contributor, has announced his bid to unseat Rep. Alan Grayson, citing deep concern with the direction our country is heading in and an “unaccountable” government.

After months of speculation, the political season in St. Petersburg is officially about to begin. Starting tomorrow, voters will have a chance to separate the serious candidates from ones filled with hot air.

@MarcACaputo

The National Republican Congressional Committee announced it's running Spanish-language ads on three Miami stations bashing Democratic Rep. Joe Garcia for the election scandal that engulfed his office (some background here).

The script:

The first time Sen. Arthenia Joyner demonstrated for civil rights, in 1960, she was in the 11th grade at Tampa’s Middleton High School. She went on to study law to follow in the footsteps of Thurgood Marshall, lead attorney in the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling, which paved the way for school integration. When Joyner graduated from law school in 1968 and couldn’t get hired as an attorney, she went into practice for herself.

A morning read of what’s hot in Florida politics.

FIRST AND FOREMOST the happiest of birthday wishes to one of Florida’s most dedicated public servants, Representative Mike Fasano. 

Huffington Post story on Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's behind-the-scenes moves:

A special election is currently underway in House  District 2, and Republican candidate Mike Hill of Pensacola is expected to coast into office. But now there is a fresh mystery to add a bit of intrigue to the race.

Two safes containing early-voting and absentee ballots are missing, the Pensacola News-Journal reported today. Santa Rosa County officials say the safes containing 35 ballots were stolen.

An appeal has been filed in the Second District Court of Appeals challenging a Florida circuit judge’s ruling ordering former Tampa Bay Times reporter Jeff Testerman to testify in the Ohio Attorney General’s case against a con-man who bilked donors out of millions of dollars using a fake Navy veterans charity.

On Monday, lawyers for Testerman filed their latest brief with the court, outlining their arguments why Testerman should not be compelled to testify.

Two safes containing early-voting and absentee ballots for the House District 2 special election were stolen over the weekend from the South Santa Rosa Service Center, authorities said.

Former Romney spokesman new press secretary for the Republican Party of Florida

 Susan Hepworth, who served as director of the national traveling press for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney during the 2012 campaign, is the new press secretary and deputy communications director for the Republican Party of Florida.

HBO’s Game of Thrones closed out its best season yet with nearly its biggest rating ever.

Sunday night’s third season closer “Mhysa” delivered 5.4 million viewers, just shy of its 5.5 million all-time high that was set several weeks back, and totaled 6.3 million for the night. That’s up 28 percent compared to last season’s finale. Thrones was against some strong summer broadcast competition that included the NBA Finals and, to a lesser degree, the Tonys.

Gov. Rick Scott is meeting with universities one by one, asking leaders to reject an automatic 1.7 percent tuition increase. Not only are schools declining his request, but some higher education observers are once again accusing Scott of crossing the line. Here is an excerpt from the story in Tuesday's paper:

A bill that may serve as a litmus test on Gov. Rick Scott's view of government reached his desk today, giving the governor 15 days to decide whether to sign or reject HB 655, which preempts local control over issues such as "sick time" and wages and replaces it with regulation from Tallahassee.

Gov. Rick Scott has outlawed posting or handing out porn – including porn soundtracks, sculptures and porn still on VHS tapes – on school grounds.

Scott on Monday signed into law a bill (HB 113) that makes it a third-degree felony “for an adult to knowingly distribute harmful materials…