Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, started his bid to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in 2012 with a bang Thursday, bringing in around $1 million at a fund-raising event in Orlando.

The race to take on Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in 2012 is starting to heat up as a crowded field of Republicans continues to get ready to run -- and takes aim at Florida’s senior senator.

A poll released by Quinnipiac University Thursday showed that Florida will be in the front lines in the 2012 political wars when both President Barak Obama and Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson face challenges for re-election.

On Wednesday, the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate rejected Republican efforts to push a measure repealing the federal health care law enacted in 2010 with the backing of President Barack Obama. The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives passed a repeal measure last week.

While U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio will not be speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) later in February, two of his fellow Sunshine State Republicans will be addressing the event.

As soon as federal Judge Roger Vinson of the U.S. District Court in Pensacola struck down the federal health care law backed by President Barack Obama as unconstitutional -- and Florida again became the political center of attention -- the Sunshine State’s congressional delegation broke on party lines in their reaction to the decision.

More than nine years after the 9/11 attacks, two Florida Republicans in Congress, both of whom are receiving some attention as possible candidates to take on Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in 2012, introduced measures on how the United States tries captured terrorists.

Florida’s congressional delegation, like the overwhelming majority in the U.S. House, broke on party lines when the new Republican majority voted Wednesday to repeal the federal health care bill enacted in 2010 with the support of President Barack Obama. Those divisions filtered down at the state level as Republicans in Florida praised the repeal measure, while Sunshine State Democrats continued to back Obama and the health care laws.

Three U.S. senators announced in recent days that they plan to retire in 2012 instead of seeking another term. But Florida Democrat Bill Nelson shows no signs of joining his three colleagues -- Kent Conrad, D-N.D., Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.

The new Republican majority in the U.S. House will vote Wednesday whether to repeal the health care law passed last year with the support of President Barack Obama. Florida’s congressional delegation is expected to mirror Congress as a whole and divide on partisan lines, with Republicans voting to repeal and Democrats voting to keep it in place.

While the RNC met in Washington Friday to determine who would be its next leader and the RPOF convenes this weekend in Orlando to determine who will replace outgoing chairman Sen. John Thrasher of Jacksonville, former Gov. Jeb Bush kicked off the Hispanic Action Network to help the GOP reach out to those voters.

While the new Congress has only been in session for little more than a week, Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan is off to a fast start.

Florida’s political leaders are continuing to pressure the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), hoping that more than half of the state will be declared as a disaster area due to the inclement weather.