Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn will be the highest-ranking elected official to attend the 2013 St. Pete Pride Carnivale Promenade.

Carnivale is the annual street festival and parade that celebrates the Tampa Bay LGBT community. It will be the highlight event of the five-day celebration beginning June 26.

This year, the parade is June 29, and will be held on Central Avenue, between 21 and 28 Streets. The Carnivale kicks off at 9 a.m. and continues through 3 p.m.

Because I am friends with Senator Jeff Brandes, sponsor of legislation to bring the driverless cars to Florida, I can’t not highlight some interesting reads on whether society needs self-driving cars.

Kaid Benfield and Lee Epstein aren’t convinced that intelligent vehicles and automated highways are a good thing:

John Sides: “First, it matters for the 2014 election. A simple model of House election outcomes constructed by political scientist Gary Jacobson shows that the share of seats controlled by the president’s party depends in part on presidential approval…. Obviously, other factors matter too.

Maybe it's the out-of-sight, out-of-mind placement of the state Capitol. Maybe it's the sluggish economy and the stubborn unemployment numbers. Whatever the reason, the latest Quinnipiac University poll sends the signal that Florida voters are not happy with Tallahassee these days -- not that they really ever are.

Below is a brief look at today's Florida Morning. Here's the full version. 

@Mdixon55

Florida

Public Service Commission incumbents draw 22 challengers

Florida Republican Party Vice Chair Blaise Ingoglia invites friends and supporters to a campaign kick-off party tonight. The fundraising event begins 5:30 p.m. at the Silverthorn Country Club in Brooksville.

Ingoglia, a popular Spring Hill homebuilder and former tournament poker player, is running for House District 35, which covers most of Hernando County.

Two members of the Florida Public Service Commission are being challenged for their seats at the state’s top utility regulatory agency by at least 22 other applicants, reports Jim Turner of the News Service of Florida.

Commission Chairman Ronald Brise and Commissioner Art Graham have both applied to keep their governor-appointed positions, with competition for the $130,036-a-year positions coming from a wide-ranging list of people with business and government experience.

Florida voters give Sen. Marco Rubio negative ratings for his work on immigration reform and strongly disagree with his vote in the U.S. Senate against requiring background checks for those buying guns, but they still give him an overall 51 – 35 percent job approval rating.

President Barack Obama gets a split 47 – 48 percent job approval rating, compared to a  50 – 45 percent approval rating in a March 21 survey by the independent Quinnipiac University.

Editor’s note: The following is a guest post from St. Pete Polls’ Matt Florell.

I followed the redistricting process in the City of St. Petersburg closely. I went to the meetings when I could, read the meeting minutes, and even submitted my own rules-compliant district map to the commission.

Florida voters give Republican Sen. Marco Rubio a 51 percent job approval rating while disagreeing with his vote against gun background checks and having an overall negative view of Rubio’s handling of immigration issues, a new Quinnipiac University poll says.

From the Quinnipiac University poll released today: Florida voters give Sen. Marco Rubio negative ratings for his work on immigration reform and strongly disagree with his vote in the U.S. Senate against requiring background checks for those buying guns, but they still give him an overall 51 – 35 percent job approval rating.

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

Almost all of Jacksonville’s City Council members have a voice on one or another of two high-profile panels under committee assignments incoming president Bill Gulliford announced Tuesday.

Gulliford appointed 16 members to the Finance and Rules committees, raising Finance’s membership to nine, two more than in most years.