Gov. Charlie Crist today set April 6 as the date for a special election to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, who is leaving office Jan. 3 to head a Middle East think tank.

The primaries will be Feb. 2.

In Wexler’s heavily Democratic Palm Beach-Broward district, the Democratic primary will likely be decisive. Announced Democratic candidates include state Sen. Ted Deutch of Boca Raton, former Broward County Mayor Ben Graber and Jose Ruiz. Republican Ed Lynch says he’s also running.

The day after she officially joined the governor’s race, Sen. Paula Dockery lobbed a shot at the state GOP political machine that seems to be doing its best to ignore one of its own.

The front page of the Republican Party of Florida’s website has no mention of Dockery, a lifelong Republican from Lakeland, but does prominently feature a press release from her GOP opponent Attorney General Bill McCollum touting Jeb Bush’s support for him.

After Dockery announced she was running for governor, the Republican Party of Florida issued a release on behalf of McCollum’s campaign highlighting his GOP endorsements.

That earned this jab at RPOF Chairman Jim Greer from Dockery today.

“Just today, the controversial and embattled head of Florida’s Republican Party told the Orlando Sentinel that the state party would spend no money to help my opponent in the gubernatorial primary.

“Hours later, he used the party’s resources to send out an email of support for my opponent, Attorney General Bill McCollum.

“This is exactly the kind of double-speak that, under Greer’s leadership, has disenfranchised grassroots Republicans from the state party.

“Party bosses shouldn’t tell the people what to do. That didn’t work for the Politburo and it won’t work for the Republican Party of Florida,” Dockery said in a press release entitled “What are they afraid of?”

RPOF spokeswoman Katie Gordon said McCollum’s campaign was using a service that’s also available to Dockery.

“The RPOF has a long-standing policy of distributing campaign press releases to our subscribers thru the RPOF blast e-mail system at the request of any of the statewide candidates. At this point, Sen. Dockery has not requested that RPOF resources be utilized to distribute her press releases to our subscribers,” Gordon said.

UPDATE: A NRSC Republican called to let us know that this isn’t really news, particularly as it relates to the Crist-Rubio race. Cornyn liked Crist’s conservative credentials (anti-abortion, pro-gun) and also that that the committee wouldn’t have to put resources into the race because Crist was such a prolific fundraiser, the source said. Essentially, Cornyn never planned to spend money on the Florida race, particularly not in a primary.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, who recruited Gov. Charlie Crist to run for Florida’s open Senate seat next year, said today that the National Senatorial Campaign Committee will not put money into the primary Republican battle with former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio.

“We will not spend money in a contested primary,” Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told ABC News .

The news comes after Crist’s lost his third major fundraiser to scandal in 10 months.

Crist still enjoys a monster fundraising advantage over Rubio, but Club for Growth President Chris Chocola telling reporters his group could throw its support behind Rubio.

State Rep. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, has lined up an all-star cast of Democratic endorsements if she runs for the state Senate seat of Ted Deutch sometime next year.

Deutch, D-Boca Raton, is running in the not-yet-scheduled special election to replace U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, who’s leaving office in January to head a Middle East think tank. If Deutch wins, his Palm Beach-Broward Senate seat will be open. Depending on the timing of the congressional election, it’s not clear if a state Senate vacancy would be filled by another special election or if the seat would remain open until the fall 2010 elections.

While those scenarios unfold, Sachs has secured big-name backing for her potential Senate bid, including Wexler and U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton; Democratic County Commissioners Burt Aaronson, Shelley Vana, Jess Santamaria, Priscilla Taylor and Jeff Koons; state Rep. Kelly Skidmore, D-Boca Raton; and two dozen Democratic club presidents and activists.

Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and 2008 GOP presidential hopeful who now heads the Free and Strong America PAC, will speak at the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches in March. In the insanely early speculation about the 2012 presidential race, Romney is one of the most bandied-about names.

Florida Republican Sen. George LeMieux will speak at the Forum Club on Nov. 23 — his first major address to a Florida audience since being appointed by Gov. Charlie Crist in August.

Forum Club lunches are held at the Cohen Pavilion at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach. Public tickets for LeMieux’s speech are $55 and must be purchased in advance by calling the Forum Club at (561) 304-0570.

Republicans are celebrating this morning after winning a number of high-profile races Tuesday in Florida, Virginia and New Jersey. But conservatives might have been early to claim a victory in an upstate New York U.S. House race, where a right-wing, third-party candidate helped force the moderate GOP candidate out of the race and, ultimately, hand Democrats a win in the Republican-leaning district.

Why does this race matter? Conservative Florida Republicans are looking to former House Speaker Marco Rubio — who applauded the insurgent contender in New York and encouraged comparisons with his own campaign — to hand Republican Gov. Charlie Crist a loss in the U.S. Senate GOP primary. Florida Democrats, meanwhile, are encouraging the turmoil in the rival party.

Here’s the take President Obama’s political adviser David Axelrod shared with POLITCO about the New York race:

“I think the big news in the race was the one that occurred before anybody voted, which was that the Republican nominee was booted off the ballot by the Palinistas. It sends a chilling message to moderate Republicans. … They’re driving folks our way.”

Meanwhile, its important to point out that Rubio has no plans to run as a third party candidate. RedState.com’s Erick Erickson:

“First, the GOP now must recognize it will either lose without conservatives or will win with conservatives. In 2008, many conservatives sat home instead of voting for John McCain. Now, in NY-23, conservatives rallied and destroyed the Republican candidate the establishment chose. … Secondly, and just as importantly, there has all of a sudden been a huge movement among some activists to go the third party route. We see in NY-23 that this is not possible as third parties are not viable. Third parties lack funding and ability for a host of reasons. Conservatives are going to have to work from within the GOP. The GOP had better pay attention.”

As Florida pols scramble to unload contributions they received from accused mega-scammer Scott Rothstein, U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, announced he’s giving the $4,600 he got last year from attorney Rothstein to a pair of Treasure Coast charities. But Rooney’s campaign said it doesn’t plan to return $4,600 he received from Rothstein’s wife last year.

Rooney’s Democratic challenger, St. Lucie County Commissioner Chris Craft, slammed the incumbent for that.

Read Craft’s statement after the jump….

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Gov. Charlie Crist’s U.S. Senate campaign will give $9,600 it received from Fort Lauderdale attorney and accused multimillion-dollar investment scammer Scott Rothstein and his wife to charity or some other entity, Crist campaign manager Eric Eikenberg said this afternoon.

Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney’s campaign will give $4,600 in Rothstein contributions to a pair of Treasure Coast charities. And the Republican Party of Florida is pledging to give about $150,000 in Rothstein-linked money to a victim-compensation fund when one is set up.

The Florida Democratic Party announced it is returning a $200,000 check from Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler law firm to the firm in hopes it “helps the victims of any wrong doing recover what they have lost.”

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As noted this morning, Palm Beach County’s Democratic Party has dumped moderate Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu as its keynote speaker for next week’s annual fund-raising dinner because party activists are displeased with Landrieu’s stance on health care.

Landrieu says she’s “very skeptical about a government-run national option” and won’t commit to voting to cut off a Republican filibuster to force a vote on Democratic health care legislation.

County Democratic Chairman Mark Alan Siegel announced the dis-invitation of Landrieu this morning.

“This is news to us,” Landrieu spokesman Robert Sawicki said in an e-mail this afternoon. “Sen. Landrieu agreed to do this event as a favor to Palm Beach Democrats, and no one from the Palm Beach Democratic Party has notified us about a change in plans for the dinner.”

Attorney General Bill McCollum brushed off Sen. Paula Dockery’s entree into the race for governor, saying he’s focused on the general election.

Dockery will officially join the race this afternoon when she files her papers in Tallahassee, creating a GOP primary race next year.

That’s good news for Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, the presumptive Democratic candidate who as yet doesn’t face a serious challenger.

But it’s bad news for McCollum, who has trailed Sink in raising campaign cash for two quarters in a row.

McCollum this morning shrugged off Dockery’s decision.

It was expected, he said.

“I’m not surprised. I respect Paula and she certainly has a right to run,” McCollum said.

“My focus, however, is on Alex Sink. That is the race that we’re already engaged in,” he went on.

McCollum stuck to his position when asked how concerned he is about a GOP primary.

“My focus is on Alex Sink. My focus is on the Democrat opponent,” he said.

Senate President and chief financial officer candidate Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, and state Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, who’s running for Atwater’s Senate seat, have pledged to give back contributions related to Scott Rothstein, the Fort Lauderdale attorney accused by his law partners of looting investors in a multimillion-dollar scheme.

Atwater appears to have received a combined $11,500 from Rothstein, his wife, the Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler law firm and a slew of businesses tied to Rothstein. Bogdanoff’s Senate campaign has logged at least $10,500 in Rothstein-linked money, and a political committee she’s affiliated with got $5,000 from Rothstein’s law firm.

Both Atwater’s and Bogdanoff’s campaigns, however, said they haven’t figured out yet exactly where to return the money.

Democratic CFO and governor candidate Alex Sink’s campaign pledged Monday to return all Rothstein-related contributions. Sink appears to have received at least $6,500 linked to Rothstein.

The Florida Public Service Commission created what could be yet another public relations nightmare for the state’s largest utility yesterday.

Utility regulators ordered Florida Power & Light Co. to refund $364.8 million in fuel surcharges in a one-time payment to customers because of a drop in fuel prices.

The refunds are normally spread out over one year.

But Commissioner Nathan Skop wanted customers to get the one-time break.

As a result, FPL customers’ January bills will be about $44 cheaper as a result of yesterday’s decision.

But the next month the bills will go back up, leading to instability for customers, FPL argues.

They want customers’ bills to be consistent from month to month so residents and businesses can plan for their utility expenses.

The power company also likely wants to avoid the fallout from the sticker-shock of a bill going up $44 from one month to the next.

“While today’s action was outside the normal process for dealing with these variations, we’re happy to be able to help customers, particularly in these difficult times. Moreover, 2010 bills will be going down as a result of greater fuel efficiencies and lower fuel costs even with the full impact of our rate request. That’s good news for customers since it combines lower bills with greater investment in making the electrical infrastructure stronger, smarter, cleaner and even more fuel efficient,” FPL said in a statement yesterday.

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Democratic Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu is out as keynote speaker for the Palm Beach County Democratic Party’s annual fund-raising dinner next week because party leaders dislike her stance on health care reform, county Democratic Chairman Mark Alan Siegel said today.

Landrieu, a moderate who recently described herself as “extremely concerned about a government-run, taxpayer-funded, national public plan,” has not committed to voting to cut off a likely Republican filibuster and forcing a vote on the legislation.

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That’s what Republican Marco Rubio is hoping. The former House speaker launched this Web site today, which his campaign has been teasing as the “MOST POWERFUL ONLINE FUNDRAISING SITE IN FLORIDA HISTORY.”

The campaign launched the site today to coincide with a special Congressional election in upstate New York. Rubio has been very interested in that race after a conservative third-party candidate helped force the resignation of a more moderate Republican.

Rubio has no plans to run as a third-party candidate, but his insurgent campaign against Republican Gov. Charlie Crist does have some similarities. Crist has a 5-to-1 money advantage so far over Rubio.

Legendary Republican operative and Nixon acolyte Roger Stone, who was partners with politically connected attorney Scott Rothstein in a Fort Lauderdale-based consulting firm, says he was shocked to hear that Rothstein is accused of orchestrating a multimillion-dollar investment scheme.

“I’m as surprised as anyone else. I still don’t have much information,” Stone said Monday.

Stone and Rothstein formed a consulting biz called RRA Consulting that operated out of the Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler law offices. Though it’s still listed in state records as an active business, Stone said the partnership dissolved a few months ago. Stone, who lives in Miami, said he still rents office space from the law firm and visits about once a month.

Rothstein has been a major Republican money-raiser, bundling big bucks for John McCain’s presidential bid and Gov. Charlie Crist’s 2010 U.S. Senate campaign and contributing about $500,000 to the state GOP either personally or through the law firm.

So it was considered a major coup for Democratic governor hopeful Alex Sink to win Rothstein’s backing this year. Rothstein hosted an Aug. 27 fund-raiser for Sink and had the law firm write a $200,000 check to the Florida Democratic Party in September.

Said Stone: “This would have to be a considerable blow to Alex Sink and the Florida Democrats. He was a major get for the Democrats…Their trophy Republican seems to be on the lam.”

Palm Beach County Commissioner Aaronson will ask his colleagues today to approve new language on the standard form that people fill out when applying for appointment to any of the approximately 80 county government advisory boards and commissions:

“Have you ever been convicted of a felony for violation of any state or federal law or regulation: If so, give details.”

Read about it here.

State Sen. Paula Dockery will enter the race for governor tomorrow, ending months of speculation about whether Attorney General Bill McCollum will face a GOP primary opponent.

Dockery confirmed that she will file papers to enter the race tomorrow.

The Lakeland Republican earned an ardent following in the spring when she led a winning crusade against a proposed Central Florida commuter rail line backed by prominent GOP leaders including Gov. Charlie Crist.

Dockery raised a ruckus about a deal in which the state would have paid transportation behemoth CSX Inc. more than $600 million for 61 miles of track for the SunRail project. Lawmakers ultimately refused to pass it even after a last-ditch effort to link it to the floundering Tri-Rail that was $80 million in the red last year.

Florida’s lagging economy that forced the legislature to trim more than $5 billion from the state budget over two years bolstered Dockery’s opposition to the project.

Dockery also criticized a component of the deal that makes the state liable for any accidents on the rail line even if they are caused by CSX, which would still be allowed to run freight cars on the commuter line.

Perhaps not coincidentally, SunRail supporter McCollum, who hails from the Orlando area, today ordered Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos to appear before the Cabinet on Nov. 17 to give an update on the liability issue.

“I strongly support legislation to implement a SunRail agreement,” McCollum wrote.

With Broward County lawyer and political mega-moneyman Scott Rothstein facing accusations of misappropriating large sums of money from investor trust accounts, the beneficiaries of his past largesse are facing pressure to give the money back.

This afternoon’s key word: “monitoring.”

Chief Financial Officer and 2010 Democratic governor candidate Alex Sink’s campaign announced she’s returning at least $2,000 in Rothstein-related contributions. The campaign has pledged to return more money if other contributors are determined to be tainted.

The Florida Democratic Party, which got a $200,000 check from Rothstein’s law firm in September, says it is “monitoring” the accusations against Rothstein and will return the money if it turns out to be tainted. The Republican Party of Florida, which has received about $500,000 from Rothstein and his law firm since 2002, also says it is “monitoring” the case.

And Gov. Charlie Crist, whose 2010 U.S. Senate campaign got $4,800 apiece from Rothstein and his wife? You guessed it: “monitoring” the allegations.

Read detailed statements after the jump…..

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Democrat Alex Sink’s gubernatorial campaign is returning at least $2,000 in contributions related to prominent Broward County attorney and political moneyman Scott Rothstein, who’s being accused by his law partners of misappropriating money from investor trust accounts.

Closer to home, our Alexandra Clough reports that Palm Beach County Commissioner Steven Abrams is resigning from the Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler law firm because of the controversy surrounding Rothstein.

“I think it’s best that a public official not be associated with the firm as it seeks to determine what happened,” Abrams said today.

Rothstein has been a major Republican contributor and money-raiser who raised big bucks for John McCain’s presidential bid and Gov. Charlie Crist’s 2010 Senate campaign.

He is also a big supporter of Democrat Sink and hosted a fund-raiser for her in August that he said raised about $240,000. Rothstein, his wife, his law firm and a software company Rothstein manages called AAMM Holdings gave $500 apiece to Sink in September.

Crist’s campaign didn’t have anyone immediately available to comment. Rothstein and his wife have given $4,800 apiece to Crist’s campaign.

Sink’s campaign released this statement today: “These are very serious allegations. The campaign is returning or donating to charity Mr. Rothstein’s and his wife’s personal contributions, as well as contributions from the account of his law firm and AAMM Holdings, LLC. If it becomes clear that others were involved in this matter, it’s our intention to return those contributions as well.”

Under one scenario laid out by Florida’s Division of Elections, a special election to replace U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, wouldn’t be until May 5. There are also scenarios that envision March 9 or April 6 elections to replace Wexler, who’s resigning Jan. 3 to head the nonprofit Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation.

Scheduling is tricky because of the holidays and federal overseas ballot requirements. If Wexler’s chosen successor — Democratic state Sen. Ted Deutch of Boca Raton — wins the congressional seat, Deutch’s constituents might be without a Senator in Tallahassee for much of the 2010 legislative session.

Read about it in this week’s Politics column by clicking here.