Gov. Charlie Crist says he’s in the dark about state GOP leaders’ demands that he pay them back for travel expenses unassociated with party business.

“It’s the typical political season stuff that we’re going to see. I think it’s sad and just indicates how partisanship gets in the way,” Crist told reporters this morning after a memorial service for missing children at the Capitol.

Republican Party of Florida Chairman John Thrasher threatened Friday to sue Crist and Jim Greer, Crist’s hand-picked party chairman, to get reimbursed for hundreds of thousands of dollars in travel costs. The expenses in question were charged to Greer and former party executive director Delmar Johnson. Crist did not have one of the party American Express cards in question.

Greer resigned in January and was charged in June with fraud, theft and money laundering for his alleged misuse of party money. Greer has pleaded not guilty. Greer maintains he is innocent.

Thrasher and other GOP leaders huddled for hours over an internal audit Friday at their annual meeting in Orlando but refused to release the audit to the public. Thrasher, a former House Speaker who is also a state
senator from St. Augustine, said he may take Crist, Greer and Johnson to court to get the money back.

“I don’t even know what they’re talking about. As you know, they haven’t been transparent. They haven’t
released any of the report. So it’s hard to even know what they’re talking about,” Crist said.

Crist, who abandoned the GOP this spring to run as an independent in the U.S. Senate race against Republican Marco Rubio and U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, a Democrat, said Thrasher has not asked him for reimbursement of the alleged charges.

“We don’t even know what they are. Neither do you. They won’t show us the report,” Crist said.

Republican congressional challenger Allen West, who says his references to butt-whoopings and trips behind the woodshed are “how men talk,” steers clear of the harsh rhetoric in his new ad against U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton. Instead, West sticks to a cookie-cutter 2010 Republican challenger theme of pointing out that the economy remains troubled despite last year’s Democratic stimulus bill, which Klein supported.

GOP governor nominee Rick Scott mentioned President Obama 20 times in his speech at Friday night’s Republican Party of Florida lovefest. Local state House candidate Tami Donnally injects “Obamacare” into her challenge of state Rep. Joseph Abruzzo, D-Wellington.

Mentioning Obama, even in non-federal races, plays up “the basic philosophical difference” between candidates, says state Rep. Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, who’s in line to become Speaker in November.

“I think he’s relevant all up and down the ticket because it’s a turnout driver,” Cannon says.

Read about it in this week’s Politics column.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Klein won his Palm Beach-Broward congressional seat in 2006 by nationalizing his campaign against former Rep. Clay Shaw, relentlessly tying the Republican incumbent to former President George W. Bush and the Iraq war.

Four years later, Klein is the incumbent confronting a different national tide.

In a swing district that will help determine which party controls the U.S. House, Republican challenger Allen West wants to make the District 22 race a referendum on President Obama and the Democratic Congress.

Klein wants to make the race about West.

Read the entire story here.

The Republican Party of Florida’s statement that it is considering legal action to recover “inappropriate expenses” by Gov. Charlie Crist, former Chairman Jim Greer and former executive director Delmar Johnson was blasted by spokesmen for all three today.

The party says it is considering litigation based on an audit that it wouldn’t release. Click here to read the whole story.

Crist campaign spokesman Danny Kanner accused the GOP of “political games” to undermine Crist, who left the GOP in April to pursue a no-party Senate bid.

Greer attorney Damon Chase accused the party of “blatant political grandstanding….They’re going after the three guys they don’t like.”

Johnson’s attorney, Bob Leventhal, said: “It’s quite disingenuous of them to make comments and not release the report…Mr. Johnson would love for them to release the audit.”

LAKE BUENA VISTA — Republican Party of Florida leaders today said they might pursue legal action to recover hundreds of thousands of dollars in “inappropriate expenses” by Gov. Charlie Crist, his hand-picked former GOP chairman and a former top party aide between 2007 and 2009.

State GOP Chairman John Thrasher made the announcement after he and the party’s executive board spent three hours reviewing an audit of party finances while Jim Greer was chairman.

Crist’s campaign spokesman accused the GOP of playing “the same old political games” against Crist, who left the party in April to pursue an independent Senate bid.

The expenses, largely travel-related, were put on the American Express cards of Greer and former GOP executive director Delmar Johnson, but many of them benefited Crist, Thrasher said.

Read the RPOF statement after the jump…

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During a press conference this morning President Obama called to talk about his plan for economic recovery, he was asked whether his administration “elevated” the situation in Gainesville when Secretary of Defense Robert Gates made a direct appeal to Pastor Terry Jones to ask him to call off plans to burn the Quran on Sept. 11.

Here is Obama’s answer:

“The idea that we would burn the sacred text of someone else’s religion is contrary to what this country stands for. It’s contrary to what this country, this nation was founded on. And my hope is that this individual prays on it refrains from doing it.

“But I’m also commander-in-chief. And we are seeing today riots in Kabul, riots in Afghanistan that threaten our young men and women in uniform. And so we’ve got an obligation to send a very clear message that this kind of behavior or threats of action put our young men and women in harms way. And it’s also the best imaginable recruiting tool for Al-Qaeda.

“And although this may be one individual in Florida, part of my concern is to make sure that we don’t start a whole bunch of folks all across the country thinking that this is the way to get attention. This is a way of endangering our troops — our sons and daughters, our fathers, mothers, husbands and wives who are sacrificing for us to keep us safe. And you don’t play games with that.

“So I hardly think that we’re the ones who elevated this story. But it is in the age of the internet something that can cause us profound damage around the world. And so we’ve got to take it seriously.”

More on the Quran burning flap here.

State Sen. Dan Gelber is proposing a multi-agency, anti-corruption unit targeting state government fraud as part of his campaign for attorney general.

Gelber, a Miami Beach Democrat and former prosecutor, wants state and federal prosecutors to go after public corruption similar to current efforts aimed at Medicaid fraud. Gelber will make the announcement at a press conference this afternoon.

Gelber’s plan would link prosecutors in the offices of the U.S. Attorney in the Northern District, state attorneys and the Florida attorney general, where he hopes to be after the Nov. 2 election against GOP nominee Pam Bondi.

Gelber’s proposal also includes ethics reforms pushed Palm Beach State Attorney Michael McAuliffe, who recently forced the resignation of Palm Beach County’s fourth commissioner, Jeff Koons. Koons was the fourth commissioner in four years to leave office for wrongdoing.

Gelber’s hoping he’ll have more luck cracking down on public corruption as attorney general than he did as a Democrat in the GOP-dominated legislature this year.

He tried but failed to convince lawmakers to pass an ethics reform package that included many of McAuliffe’s recommendations during the legislative session that ended in May.

Gelber’s anti-corruption proposals would have made it a crime for any public official to knowingly withhold information about a financial interest in something on they vote or cause to take place. They would would also have required disclosure of financial interests that could benefit a family member.

Republican Rick Scott and Democrat Alex Sink are sharpening their political attacks while laying the ground work for a blitz of spending for their respective gubernatorial campaigns.

New campaign finance documents show Sink has opened her own electioneering committee, which allows her to avoid Florida’s restrictive $500 limit on contributions to state candidates.

The documents show Sink signed off on creating the committee two days before evading a reporter’s question about whether she planned to form such a group, sometimes referred to as a “527″ because of the IRS code that regulates it.

Scott, meanwhile, has asked the federal court to eliminate a state financing program that was created to level the playing field for candidates facing wealthy opponents.

Story here.

“Are you fed up with Congress?” says Republican congressional challenger Allen West in the type of ad GOP non-incumbents will be airing across the nation this fall. West’s new ad hits U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, for voting for last year’s $787 billion stimulus “while our economy fails.”

Klein’s first two ads have blasted West over his personal finances, including an $11,081 tax lien from 2005 that was paid off in 2006. West says “it’s time for a real discussion of the issues” while the screen shows a picture of Klein and the words “Afraid To Run On His Record.”

With this new ad by Republican Marco Rubio, all three Florida Senate candidates have now weighed in with post-Labor Day TV spots.

Democrat Kendrick Meek, trailing in the polls and having to defend his partisan base against indie Charlie Crist, clearly identified himself as a Dem and mentioned seven specific issues and threw in a George W. Bush reference in his spot.

Crist pledged to take the best ideas of both Republicans and Democrats in his ad.

Rubio, who released a late-August ad celebrating his Cuban-exile parents’ pursuit of the American dream, follows with a spot that features his four kids and says: “If we honestly confront the great challenges of our time and end foreign debt, record spending, and runaway government, theirs will become the most prosperous generation in history.”

This blog was originally posted with the headline “Scott sues to block tax money from Sink campaign.” But that was wrong, because I misinterpreted a statement from Republican Rick Scott’s gubernatorial campaign. Here’s the truth:

Scott has asked a federal court to make permanent a preliminary injunction on a campaign finance law that gave tax dollars to candidates facing big-spending opponents.

Scott’s motion is considered to be a technicality at this point. The state has dropped its opposition, as has Scott’s primary opponent, Bill McCollum. Democratic candidate for governor Alex Sink’s campaign says she will not oppose Scott’s request, either.

The state’s top two law enforcement groups – the Fraternal Order of Police and the Police Benevolent Association – have thrown their support behind Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, the Democrat in the governor’s race.

According to Sink’s campaign, it’s the first time the FOP has endorsed a Democrat for governor in 16 years. Their last pick? The late Gov. Lawton Chiles in his 1994 re-election campaign. Sink’s campaign also says it’s been two decades since both law enforcement organizations a Democrat for governor.

Sink’s duties as the state’s chief financial officer include acting as Florida’s fire marshal.

Democrat Alex Sink has opened an electioneering committee that can receive unlimited donations, but she is still deliberating on whether to accept taxpayer money to help pay for her campaign.

“The campaign has not made a decision on whether we’ll be accepting public funds,” Sink spokeswoman Kyra Jennings said.

By our quick math, Sink is eligible for about $4 million in tax dollars to supplement her campaign for governor.

She accepted about $1 million from the state for her CFO campaign in 2006. But this year her Republican opponent, Rick Scott, has turned the public financing program into a political issue. Scott, a wealthy Naples businessman, doesn’t need any help from taxpayers. He poured $50 million of his own money into his primary race.

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A new CNN poll of registered voters — as opposed to likely voters — shows Democrat Alex Sink with a 49-to-42 percent lead over Republican Rick Scott in the governor’s race.

In the Senate race, Republican Marco Rubio has 36 percent, indie Gov. Charlie Crist gets 34 percent and Democrat Kendrick Meek polls 24 percent.

The Sept. 2-7 survey of 899 registered voters has a 3.5 percent margin of error.

PALM BEACH — Democratic Senate candidate Kendrick Meek is “off the mark” when he says in his new TV ad that he’s the only candidate against privatizing Social Security and for abortion rights, Gov. and independent Senate candidate Charlie Crist said today.

Crist, who stopped by a Palm Beach County Hotel and Lodging Association lunch at The Breakers, also said he’s for extending all the Bush tax cuts and called plans by a Gainesville church to burn the Quran “deplorable.”

Crist and Meek are vying for many of the same Democratic votes in this year’s three-way Senate contest, which also includes Republican Marco Rubio.

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Former state Sen. Skip Campbell, the Democratic nominee for attorney general in 2006, endorsed Gov. Charlie Crist’s independent U.S. Senate campaign today.

Here’s his statement:

“In his time as Governor, Charlie Crist has worked across party lines to improve the lives of Florida’s working families,” Campbell said. “As a United States Senator, Governor Crist will take the best ideas from both parties to create jobs, protect our environment, and make sure every child has access to a high-quality public education. I am pleased to endorse his candidacy.”

Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink will release her and husband Bill McBride’s tax returns for the past five years next week.

Sink, the Democrat’s nominee for governor, is challenging GOP opponent Rick Scott, the self-made billionaire who made his fortune in the health care industry, to do the same.

Scott, who self-funded his primary campaign against Attorney General Bill McCollum, refused to release his tax returns when McCollum challenged him to do so earlier this summer.

Meanwhile, Scott has agreed to two debates next month with Sink, who asked for five debates before the Nov. 2 election.

Scott agreed to a debate Oct. 20 in Davie sponsored by Leadership Florida and the Florida Press Association and another on Oct. 25 in St. Petersburg sponsored by the St. Petersburg Times and CNN and moderated by CNN host John King.

With the Bush tax cuts set to expire Dec. 31 unless Congress acts, President Obama is sticking to his position that the tax breaks should end for the wealthiest filers, pushing them into a 39.6 percent top bracket instead of the current 35 percent top rate.

Obama’s position is shared by Democratic Senate nominee Kendrick Meek. Democratic governor candidate Alex Sink, however, said in Delray Beach Tuesday that all the tax cuts should be extended.

And U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, facing a tough reelection challenge from Republican Allen West, came out Tuesday for a one-year extension.

Says Klein: “Every day, I hear from families that are still struggling with bills and people who can’t find a job no matter how hard they try, so I believe right now, our top economic priority has to be job creation. In order to achieve that, we need tax credits for small businesses that will help create new American jobs, while also promoting investment and growth. As we work to rebuild the economy, I support a one-year extension of the so-called Bush tax cuts.”

Democratic candidate for governor Alex Sink is up today with this TV ad. Some background here.