Lawton “Bud” Chiles III made it official Thursday, pulling the plug on his gubernatorial campaign and endorsing Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink.

It wasn't easy for Attorney General Bill McCollum to accept that newcomer Rick Scott had upset Florida's Republican establishment -- and with that upset, his dream of being Florida's next governor.

This is it -- primary Election Day in Florida -- in a state of increasing national importance and political vigor. As the rest of America watches -- for that matter, as Florida intently watches itself -- voters go to the polls to decide who will be their party's nominees in November’s general election.

A new poll from Quinnipiac University released Thursday has state CFO Alex Sink, the likely Democratic nominee, ahead of both of the Republicans in the gubernatorial race and has independent Gov. Charlie Crist ahead of Republican Marco Rubio and both of the leading Democrats in the U.S. Senate contest.

Heading into this month’s primary election there are at least 612,000 more Democrats than Republicans eligible to vote, Division of Elections figures released Monday show.

Independent gubernatorial candidate Bud Chiles met with business leaders and environmental activists in Tallahassee Friday to discuss alternative energy sources for Florida, linking them to the state’s downtrodden economy.

A Rasmussen Reports poll released Wednesday shows the two leading Republicans running for governor fare very differently when pitted against Democratic front-runner Alex Sink, the state CFO -- with health-care executive Rick Scott leading Sink and Attorney General Bill McCollum trailing the Democrat.

While Democrats are continuing to defect to independent U.S. Senate candidate Gov. Charlie Crist, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson is not one of them. Nelson said in an MSNBC interview Tuesday morning that he would back the Democratic nominee in the race, be it U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek or billionaire financier Jeff Greene …

Drug Charge Won't Defeat Candidate
A candidate for State House District 1 says he’s staying in the race despite felony drug trafficking charges. The Northwest Florida Daily News reported last week that Ricky Perritt will remain on the ballot, partly because there isn’t enough time to remove his name anyway before the Aug. 24 primary.

Trailing badly in the polls behind health-care executive Rick Scott in the fight for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, Attorney General Bill McCollum sought to reinforce his crime-fighting credentials Monday.

A poll released Wednesday reveals that Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum is in deep trouble.