Tea partiers and a Republican political action committee say they will descend on South Florida Water Management District headquarters today to protest the agency's purchase of U.S. Sugar property for Everglades restoration.

"The defendant has overstepped his attempt at monopoly," attorney Frank Herrera told U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra, contending that Frederic O'Neal had no exclusive right to the Florida Tea Party name.

Health care executive Rick Scott, a political phenomenon who went from virtual unknown to the leading candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in the course of a mere two months, filed his paperwork to make his bid official lateThursday morning.

As an "independent" senator, Charlie Crist would be in a position to leverage his vote for Florida's greater good, political observers say.

Or, in the words of another, he would be "largely ineffective."

If Crist beats Marco Rubio and Kendrick Meek in the fall election, "neither party would be terribly happy with him as he will be perceived as denying them a win," said Roger Stone, a veteran political consultant who worked on Ronald Reagan's 1984 campaign.

A knock-down, drag-out fist fight between Senate candidates Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio on "Fox News Sunday" may make for good network ratings, but what does it profit the Republican Party of Florida?

A bloody brawl might have some GOP leaders nervously clutching their TV remotes. Yet, the increasingly combative race is drawing evermore intense focus on Florida as a bellwether state for the Fall elections coast to coast.