A combative Michele Bachmann, continuing to poll in low single digits in the race for the GOP nomination, might not have made many friends in Hispanic-heavy South Florida as she called for widespread deportation and English as an official language at a press conference this evening in Ft. Lauderdale.

Bachmann, polling at just one percent in Florida in the latest American Research Group poll, said she believes her stances will “bring Latino voters in.”

“When people are intercepted here illegally, they need to come within the confines of the law,” said Bachmann of an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. “If that means deportation, we need to have deportation.”

Bachmann also said, “I’ll make English the official language of United States federal government,” while calling for an end to a long-standing law that gives automatic citizenship to babies born on American soil.

The press conference was not tied to a campaign appearance. Bachmann will hold a private fundraiser tonight in Boca Raton, but she called the presser at the Westin in Ft. Lauderdale to try to get her message across in South Florida.

She took plenty of shots at Newt Gingrich, the poll leader in Florida, saying, “Influence peddling is not consistent with trying to portray yourself as an outsider.”

She also predicted that the Iowa caucus, just one month away, will “be the cannon shot that changes the world,” as she propels back into the race.

The press conference came just a day after Bachmann told a crowd in Iowa, “We wouldn’t have an American embassy in Iran,” if she were president. The U.S. has not had relations with Iran for three decades.

Bachmann’s campaign had to clarify today, saying she was speaking in hypothetical in reaction to news that teh British had shut its embassy in Iran amid protests. If there was an embassy in Iran and she was president, she would shut it down, her campaign said.

Florida Democrats said Thursday they’ve added a new honoree to their ‘Rickpublican’ hall of fame — Senate President Mike Haridopolos.

The Melbourne Republican gets the nod for recently acknowledging in a deposition that he tried to mislead a reporter months back when he was asked whether he agreed to give former Florida GOP Chair Jim Greer a lucrative severance package for leaving the party post. The deal fell apart, and Greer’s facing felony charges for allegedly directing thousands of dollars in party funds to an account he controlled.

“Backroom dealings and outright lies are a go-to in the Florida GOP playbook. While Haridopolos might not be able to remember much, he clearly hasn’t forgotten how to avoid the truth,” said Democratic Party executive director Scott Arceneaux.

In the deposition taken by Greer lawyers last month, Haridopolos said he was  “not telling the whole story” when he described what he knew of  the severance.

Haridopolos is among the first to be enshrined in the ‘hall.’ But with eyes on next year’s election season, state Democrats unveiled the website www.rickpublicans.com  in October to taunt state Republicans by tying them to Florida Gov. Rick Scott, whose poll numbers have languished most of this year. 

Connecticut gunmaker Colt’s Manufacturing Co., plans to open a regional manufacturing plant in Central Florida’s Osceola County, bringing with it 63 jobs, Gov. Rick Scott said Thursday.

Scott, who has vowed to create 700,000 jobs in Florida in seven years, also used the announcement to fire-off a defense of the constitutional right to carry one of Colt’s products.

“As a supporter of new job creation and the Second Amendment, this announcement sends the clear message that Florida is both open for business and a defender of our right to bear arms,” Scott said. “My primary responsibility as governor is to be our state’s chief advocate for job creation. My personal involvement in bringing Colt to Florida demonstrates my administration’s deep commitment to rebuilding our economy.”

State officials say Florida has added about 110,000 jobs since Scott was sworn-in in January.

He’s also nuanced his campaign pledge. Scott’s dropped the claim that he would add 700,000 jobs on top of what economists had forecast to be a likely 1 million additional jobs in that time frame, based on normal growth projections.

The 63 jobs expected at the Osceola County plant are expected to pay an average salary of  just over $45,000.

Colt plans to make a $2.5 million investment in equipment and retooling a vacant building owned by Osceola County. The company is getting $250,000 in state incentives and workforce training, while the county will do building renovations and offer a break on rent for the leased structure.

Democratic challenger Lois Frankel wasted little time Thursday challenging speculation that U.S. Rep. Allen West could head north — out of a redrawn, Democratic-leaning district and into a primary fight with fellow Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney.

West’s chief of staff, Jonathan Blyth, downplayed talk Wednesday among Republican consultants that his boss was looking for friendlier turf, with the Plantation congressman eyeing the political backyard of Rooney, who lives in Tequesta.

Frankel, though, seized on the chatter, serving up some political trash talk.

“It looks like Mr. West is afraid of a real fight, which is what he will get when he faces me in a general election,” said Frankel, who faces a Democratic primary contest with Broward County accountant Patrick Murphy. “Mr. West: don’t cut and run…stay and fight. I am not retreating to anywhere. I am staying right here.”

 Blyth later fired back at Frankel.

“Congressman West is a 22- year veteran of the U.S. Army who served in real combat against enemies of our nation,” Blyth said. “Lt. Colonel West has never cut and run protecting and defending citizens of our nation.”

Democrats continued Thursday to blast new voter laws in Florida and 13 other states which they say have been crafted by Republican leaders to blunt turnout and damage President Obama’s re-election bid next year.

Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a member of Congress from Davie, said the party has launched a new website www.protectingthevote.org aimed at informing voters of the new standards — and rallying support for having them overturned. Florida’s law is already the subject of  a lawsuit filed by the ACLU and voting rights organizations.

A U.S. Senate subcommittee also plans to hold a hearing in Florida in coming weeks on the new law, following a request by Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, who said the state’s new standard violates “basic rights.”

In a conference call with reporters Thursday, Wasserman Schultz said Republicans are out to “rig elections.”

“By now, it’s well known they’re determined to roll back the right to vote and skew the 2012 presidential election,” Wasserman Schultz said.

Democrats and their allies have blistered the new Florida law, which reduces turnout by reducing the number of days available for early voting, while also imposing tighter reporting standards for third-party groups that register voters.

 A study earlier this year by the Brennan Center for Justice found the new laws could keep 5 million people nationwide from voting next year.

Supporters of the measures deny any partisan motivation, instead saying the stricter standards are intended to reduce voter-fraud.

Wasserman Schultz, though, isn’t buying that.

A 74-page report released Thursday by the Democratic Party concluded, “every major investigation into voter fraud in the United States has arrived at the same conclusion: There is almost none. The real fraud has been the use of baseless allegations to change election laws in ways that will lead to partisan Republican gains.”

Launching his campaign by deriding rival Bill Nelson as one of President Obama’s “lockstep liberals,” Republican U.S. Senate contender Connie Mack is expecting to be picketed by what his office staff called  ”loony liberals” Thursday.

Mack’s namesake father punctured Democratic opponent Buddy Mackay 23 years ago with the phrase, “Hey Buddy, you’re liberal.” The son’s days-old campaign seems to be sticking to a similar script.

Southwest Florida supporters of the Occupy Wall Street movement plan to protest at 1 p.m. today outside Mack’s Cape Coral office. But once Mack staffers got hold of the rally’s electronic sign-up sheet, they fired out a press release, tying the demonstration to MoveOn.org, the left-leaning activist group founded by billionaire George Soros.

“It’s appalling that George Soros and the loony liberals of MoveOn.org are protecting Bill Nelson by staging a sit-in protest at Congressman Mack’s office,” said David James, Mack’s deputy campaign manager. ”Three days after Connie Mack entered the race for U.S. Senate, these leftists are scared of the Mack candidacy and Connie’s message of freedom, security and prosperity.  Florida has had enough of the loony left and will bring an end to their big government, big taxation and big spending agenda next November.”

Polls show Mack is the frontrunner in five-person Republican field. At least one survey also shows him with enough current support to knock off Nelson, if Mack wins the GOP primary.

A new Public Policy Polling survey also shows Mack well out front in the Republican contest. It also examines the potency of name identification, but doesn’t attribute all of Mack’s success to having a well-known monicker.

The poll found Mack’s name is recognized by 57 percent of Republican voters in Florida, about double his nearest rival, short-term Senate-appointee George LeMieux. Others in the race were far back.

But the survey also found that voters familiar with the other candidates, still liked Mack best. 

“Name recognition is certainly an important part of the equation, but even when you account for that Mack’s well ahead,” PPP concluded. “And he has strong numbers across the ideological lines of the GOP, getting 44 percent with ‘very conservative’ voters, 43 percent with ’somewhat conservative’ ones, and 32 percent with moderates.”