State Rep. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, tells PostOnPolitics she’s not ready to make an announcement on whether she’ll run for the Palm Beach-Treasure Coast congressional District 18 seat held by freshman Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter.

With national Republicans eager for candidates to start raising money to combat Murphy’s $672,013-and-growing re-election warchest, Harrell said earlier this year that she’d wait until the end of the state legislative session to make a decision. The session ended Friday. Now Harrell says she probably won’t make an announcement before July 1.

“I would not anticipate any formal announcements until the new fundraising quarter,” Harrell said today. “If I do it I would want to have a strong (first) fundraising quarter.”

The current quarter began April 1 and runs through June 30. Candidates often wait until the beginning of a new quarter to open a campaign so they can collect three months’ worth of contributions and post an impressive number when they file their first Federal Election Commission report.

Harrell is in Washington this week on business, but said she’ll also be talking to the National Republican Congressional Committee and other political operatives about the race. Former state Rep. Carl Domino is also expected in D.C. this week as he considers a congressional run.

Juno Beach Councilwoman Ellen Andel and former Derby, Conn., mayor Alan Schlesinger have already announced campaigns for the District 18 seat. Other Republicans looking at the race include St. Lucie County Commissioner Tod Mowery, former Tequesta councilman Calvin Turnquest and businessman Gary Uber.

JUNO BEACH — About 100 people turned out this morning as two-term Councilwoman Ellen Andel launched her Republican bid for the Palm Beach-Treasure Coast congressional District 18 seat held by freshman Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter.

In what could be a crowded GOP primary, Andel staked out conservative positions in an outdoor speech by the town hall.

“Washington could gain some valuable insights about the way we do things here in Juno Beach,” Andel said, noting the town is debt-free while the federal debt is nearing $17 trillion.

“This race is about restoring conservative principles of limited government, fiscal responsibility, individual sovereignty, free-market ideas and strong national security. It’s about promoting policies that lessen crippling regulation, reduce the tax burden and simplify the tax code. This is the only way that we will create economic growth and opportunity,” Andel said.

Andel, 46, was accompanied by her husband and two daughters. Palm Beach County GOP Chairman Ira Sabin and St. Lucie County GOP Chairman Bill Paterson — both neutral in the primary — were on hand.

Andel will likely face several Republican rivals for a seat that is a national priority for the GOP. Other Republicans who have shown interest in the race include state Rep. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, former state Rep. Carl Domino, St. Lucie County Commissioner Tod Mowery, former Tequesta councilman Calvin Turnquest, businessman Gary Uber and former Derby, Conn., mayor Alan Schlesinger.

Ellen Andel, the vice mayor pro tem of Juno Beach, is entering the race for the Palm Beach-Treasure Coast congressional District 18 seat held by freshman Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter.

Andel plans an official announcement Tuesday morning at the Juno Beach Town Center.

The district has a slight Republican registration edge and voted 51.5 percent for Mitt Romney, so several Republicans have been eyeing the seat. Alan Schlesinger, a former mayor of Derby, Conn., who was the GOP’s 2006 Senate nominee in Connecticut, has declared he’s running and lined up Tallahassee-based consultant Rockie Pennington for his campaign.

Other Republicans looking at the District 18 race include state Rep. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, St. Lucie County Commissioner Tod Mowery, former state Rep. Carl Domino, former Tequesta councilman Calvin Turnquest and businessman Gary Uber. Former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner has not ruled out running.

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Gov. Rick Scott made an across-the-board $2,500 pay increase for teachers one of his top two priorities for this year’s legislative session. Lawmakers added some strings, but approved $480 million for pay increases, so Scott is declaring victory.

Scott is embarking on a five-city “victory tour” to promote the raises today, Tuesday and Friday.

The governor will be in Sunrise this morning, then at Wynnebrook Elementary School in West Palm Beach at 11:45 a.m. before heading to Ponte Vedra this afternoon.

He’ll also tout the raises in Ocoee on Tuesday and Tampa on Friday.

Back when Marco Rubio was a long shot anti-establishment Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in 2009, the William F. Buckley-founded National Review certified him as a national conservative star by featuring him on its cover.

It helped boost Rubio’s fundraising and popularity with GOP primary voters.

He eventually overtook heavily favored Gov. Charlie Crist in Republican primary polls, sending Crist to a failed no-party Senate bid and, eventually, the Democratic Party.

The National Review isn’t showing Rubio any love with it’s latest cover, calling his push for bipartisan immigration reform “Rubio’s Folly” and depicting him yukking it up with two figures who are reviled by many on the right — Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York and Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona

PORT ST. LUCIE — At least 25 foes of immigration reform were protesting in the rain before Republican Sen. Marco Rubio arrived here to speak at tonight’s St. Lucie County GOP Lincoln Day dinner.

Members of the group Floridians for Immigration Enforcement say Rubio is breaking a 2010 campaign promise to oppose amnesty because Rubio has become a key supporter of legislation that includes a pathway to citizenship for people who are now in the country illegally.

“I expended shoe leather and time and energy helping Marco Rubio become the senator in Florida and now he’s gone back on his campaign promises on amnesty,” said Ed Bender of Pompano Beach. “You want to call it a path to citizenship…the net result is people get to call themselves citizens on some level and the reality of it is billions and billions of additional dollars that this country does not have to support new citizens.”

Rubio, in a brief interview with the Politics column before his speech, said the bill he and other members of the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” have drafted does not grant amnesty to the estimated 11 million people in the country illegally.

“I think their definition of amnesty is anything that doesn’t deport 11 million people. And I say ‘theirs’ – that specific group, I’m not saying everybody has that same definition,” Rubio said of the demonstrators.

“When you’re asking someone to pay a $2,000 fine, an application fee, undergo a background check and a national security background check and all the other elements that are involved in this and wait 10 years before they can even apply for a Green Card and not qualify for any federal benefits – when you’re asking someone to go through all of that, that’s not amnesty. That’s a significant undertaking,” Rubio said.

Rubio has repeatedly called the Senate legislation a “starting point” and says he’s open to amendments and changes to the bill.

“I never pretended that eight senators could come up with a piece of legislation that we could offer to everyone as a take-it-or-leave-it proposition,” Rubio said.

To win support in the Republican-controlled House, Rubio said, “I think where we still need to do a little bit of work is on firming up the border security things to ensure that the border security happens.”

When Texas Gov. Rick Perry visited West Palm Beach last month, he and Florida Gov. Rick Scott touted low state taxes as a key to economic growth.

Perry said he wanted to “drive a conversation in this country about Red State vs. Blue State policies.”

Palm Beach Post business writer Jeff Ostrowski drives the conversation some more today with a look at job growth, unemployment and other indicators in four low-tax states — Texas, Florida, Nevada and Washington — and three high-tax states — New York, New Jersey and California.

Click here to read the red-vs.-blue analysis.

Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio‘s efforts to assuage the concerns of the right on immigration reform haven’t worked with Floridians for Immigration Enforcement, a group based in the Treasure Coast that plans to protest Wednesday when Rubio speaks at the St. Lucie County GOP’s Lincoln Day Dinner.

Rubio is part of the bipartisan Gang of Eight that drafted a reform bill that would create a 13-year path to citizenship for people who are now in the country illegally. Critics accuse Rubio of supporting amnesty — something Rubio has criticized in the past and says he’s not supporting now.

Rubio’s immigration stance also puts him at odds with mentor and former South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, whose June 2009 endorsement of then-underdog Rubio helped establish Rubio’s conservative bona fides and sent him on his way to overtaking Charlie Crist for the 2010 GOP Senate nomination. DeMint now heads the Heritage Foundation, which is gearing up to oppose the immigration bill.

San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, who delivered the keynote speech at last year’s Democratic National Convention, will be the keynoter for the Florida Democratic Party’s annual Jefferson-Jackson fundraising dinner on June 15 in Broward County.

It’s the second year in a row the party has tapped an up-and-coming Latino mayor for the headliner role. Last year, Los Angeles Mayor Anthony Villaraigosa keynoted an event that drew about 1,000 people and raised an estimated $750,000.

Sen. Bill Nelson and Democratic National Committee Chairwoman and U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz will also be featured at this year’s $180-a-plate J-J dinner at the Westin Diplomat Hotel in Hollywood.

Former Republican Rep. Allen West has nixed the idea of a 2014 rematch against Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter, who unseated him in November.

National Republicans would love state Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, to challenge Murphy next year, but Negron is opting to remain on the Senate president track.

At least eight other Republicans have shown some interest in running for Murphy’s Palm Beach-Treasure Coast congressional District 18 seat. With Murphy already building a warchest of more than $600,000, candidates are under pressure to decide soon whether to enter the race and start raising money.

Read about it in this week’s Politics column….

The Capitol Hill publication Roll Call says Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson is mulling a run for governor in 2014, but Nelson spokesman Dan McLaughlin says there’s “nothing new” since Nelson told reporters in March that he had “no plans” to run.

That declaration to reporters in Tallahassee came two weeks after McLaughlin told PostOnPolitics that Nelson “cannot envision a circumstance under which he would run for governor.”

Of course, having “no plans” or being unable to “envision” something is not the same as flatly ruling out the possibility for all time.

As McLaughlin told Roll Call: “I’d say that’s true, that he’s considering it…An awful lot of people have contacted him and asked him to do so. But — and as he’s said a number of times — he presently doesn’t have any intention of running. He’s got a job to do as a senator.”

Democrats believe they have a prime opportunity to unseat Republican Gov. Rick Scott and his low approval ratings. Former state Sen. Nan Rich of Broward County has opened a campaign and there’s widespread expectation that Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democratic former Gov. Charlie Crist will open a campaign.

Former President George W. Bush, in an ABC News interview, says his younger brother Jeb Bush would be a “marvelous” candidate if the former Florida governor decides to run for president in 2016.

“He would be a marvelous candidate if he chooses to do so. He doesn’t need my counsel because he knows what it is, which is ‘Run!’ ” Bush told Diane Sawyer. “But whether he does or not, it’s a very personal decision.”

The former president said the possibility of a Jeb Bush-Hillary Clinton contest in 2016 will make for “a fantastic photo here” at today’s opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum on the campus of Southern Methodist University near Dallas. Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton are expected to be on hand, along with former presidents Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton and President Barack Obama.

Jennifer Carroll, who resigned abruptly as Florida’s lieutenant governor in March, has landed a job as a senior adviser to Global Digital Solutions, which plans to merge with a small-arms manufacturing company.

Global Digital Solutions says it provides “knowledge-based and culturally attuned social consulting and security-related solutions in unsettled areas.” It plans to merge with Airtronic USA, Inc., which bills itself as the nation’s “largest woman-owned small arms manufacturer.”

Carroll is slated to become president and chief operating officer when the merger is complete, according to a press release.

“I’m delighted to join Global Digital Solutions as a senior advisor,” Carroll said in the press release. “And I look forward to working closely with the team at GDSI and Airtronic to seize what I believe are truly enormous growth opportunities both in the domestic and global arenas.”

Carroll resigned March 13, shortly after Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigators questioned her about Allied Veterans of the World, a St. Augustine-based nonprofit accused of running an illegal gambling ring. Carroll, who once represented Allied Veterans as a public relations consultant, has not been accused of any wrongdoing. She said she resigned to avoid being a “distraction” to Gov. Rick Scott.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio‘s attempts to get conservatives to support — or at least not vehemently oppose — immigration reform continued Tuesday night with an appearance on Sean Hannity‘s Fox News show.

Rubio played on the right’s dislike of President Barack Obama, arguing that the administration has done a poor job of handling of border security and contending that passing immigration reform would force the administration to get tougher.

“I think people have a good reason to be skeptical about immigration reform at the outset, because this administration has not done a good job of enforcing the law. What I have found over the last few days is that one of the biggest obstacles we face here is a lack of trust in the administration’s willingness to enforce the law,” Rubio told Hannity.

“But my point is, if we don’t do anything, that’s exactly what you are leaving in place. The only way that I know how to make the administration, this administration or a future administration, secure the border, is to pass a law that forces them to secure the border. And that’s what I’m working on, and that’s what our bill does. It requires them to spend upwards of 5.5 billion dollars on a border security plan, on a fencing plan. In addition to that, it requires the full implementation of e-verify. It requires the full implementation of an entry-exit tracking system. That is just so much better than what we have in place right now. And so, if we don’t do anything, or if we can’t get those things done, then what stays in place is what we have right now. How is that good for us?”

Freshman Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter, turned 30 last month. But the parties continue for the youngest member of Congress.

Murphy supporters are hosting a low-dollar birthday bash Wednesday in Washington that requires only a $30 contribution for young professionals and students under 30.

According to the Sunlight Foundation’s Political Party Time website, which tracks fundraising parties by candidates and elected officials, it’s the fourth birthday-themed fundraiser for Murphy in the past month. His campaign used the three-decade milestone to raise money at events last month in Miami Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Miami.

Murphy raised an eye-popping $557,912 in the first quarter of 2013 and already has $672,013 cash on hand as he prepares for what could be a tough 2014 re-election bid. University of Virginia prognosticator Larry Sabato‘s Crystal Ball newsletter called Murphy the “most vulnerable” House Democrat in February because he narrowly beat Republican Allen West in 2012 in a district that voted 51.5 percent for Mitt Romney.

The GOP has not yet recruited a candidate to challenge Murphy. But that hasn’t stopped the National Republican Congressional Committee from running web ads attacking Murphy or from using the multiple birthday fundraisers to accuse Murphy of “treating his time in Congress like an episode of MTV’s Super Sweet 16.”

Freshman U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach, who’s been tapped by national Dems to try to recruit more female congressional candidates, is sending out fundraising appeals on behalf of Elizabeth Colbert Busch, the South Carolina Democrat poised to take a Republican-leaning House seat in a May 7 special election.

Colbert Busch, the sister of Comedy Central talk persona Stephen Colbert, is running against baggage-laden Republican Mark Sanford. He’s the former Palmetto State governor whose bizarre 2009 disappearance and admission of an extramarital affair continues to reverberate. Sanford’s campaign was rocked recently by his ex-wife’s complaint that he trespassed on her property Feb. 3. Sanford admitted visiting the house to watch the Super Bowl with his son.

A survey released today by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling shows Colbert Busch opening up a 9-point lead.

Says a Frankel fundraising appeal e-mailed today: “We don’t get chances like this often. The first district in South Carolina is bright red and the fact that Colbert Busch is leading speaks volumes to just how little trust the people of South Carolina really have in their former governor.”

Frankel’s e-mail asks recipients to send a contribution to Colbert Bush. It also gives them the opportunity to “split it!” and send money to Frankel’s re-election campaign as well.

After most Senate Republicans and a few red-state Democrats blocked legislation to expand background checks for gun buyers last week, GOP megadonor Al Hoffman blasted those in his own party who oppose “reasonable” gun control.

Hoffman, a former Republican National Committee finance chair and ambassador to Portugal who lives in North Palm Beach, says Democratic President Barack Obama is right on gun issues and the GOP could suffer because of it in 2014.

“I think this has given Obama a perfect position, a perfect ploy to claim the higher ground. And the higher ground is based upon appealing to the grass roots … who feel that the majority of Americans want reasonable gun control,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman’s analysis is disputed by many, including Tallahassee-based Republican strategist Rick Wilson, who maintains that even though polls show most Americans support background checks, most of those voters don’t regard gun control as one of their top issues.

Regardless, Hoffman’s opinion carries some weight within the GOP. He has personally given more than $272,000 to Republicans over the last five years and helped the GOP raise far more than that. And Hoffman says he’ll be reluctant to raise money in the future for candidates who don’t share his views on guns.

If a Republican who opposes “reasonable” gun measures comes to him for financial help, Hoffman said, “it would be a tough sell for them…I would have to really think hard about it before I would choose to support them financially.”

Read about it in this week’s Politics column.

Former Republican U.S. Rep. Allen West, reacting to reports that the suspects in the Boston Marathon terror bombings are Muslim, told his Facebook audience of more than 273,000 this morning that “we have a domestic radical Islamic terror problem in America.”

West, whose remarks about Islam have often generated controversy, got more than 13,000 “likes,” 6,300 shares and 1,300 comments in less than an hour for today’s Facebook post.

Read West’s statement after the jump…

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Former U.S. Rep. Allen West accused Florida Atlantic University protesters of harassing his wife, an FAU Board of Trustees member, and warned them in a Facebook post today to stop or “you will face me, the side of me that you do not want to see.”

The Stop Owlcatraz Coalition, a group formed to protest a $6 million stadium-naming deal at FAU, fired back with a statement accusing West of threatening students and calling on FAU to bar the former Republican congressman from all its campuses.

Angela West, a financial adviser with Raymond James, said two FAU students came uninvited to her Fort Lauderdale office last month to urge her to oppose a private prison contractor’s $6 million donation to the school. GEO Group, which made the $6 million pledge and was to have its name on FAU’s football stadium, ended up withdrawing the gift this month after weeks of uproar.

Angela West said that when she disagreed with the students who came to her office they demanded she resign from the board. When she asked them to leave, West said, one of the students said “Oh, you think you’re as tough as your husband.” West, who is black, said a student also accused her of wanting to “bring back Jim Crow” — a reference to laws that perpetuated segregation.

One of West’s co-workers at Raymond James, Leon Rehak, backed up her account and said that when the students left, they slammed a door so hard it nearly broke a window.

The Stop Owlcatraz Coalition offered a different account of the meeting in its statement.

“She agreed to a March 18 meeting at her Raymond James office in Fort Lauderdale. At that meeting, Angela became rude and aggressive and students walked out of the meeting as she began yelling at them,” the group’s statement said.

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Republican mega-financier Al Hoffman of North Palm Beach is at it again.

The former Republican National Committee finance chairman and George W. Bush-appointed ambassador to Portugal rankled many conservatives in 2011 when he took to the op-ed page of the New York Times to urge the GOP to accept higher taxes as part of a “grand bargain” on the deficit.

Now Hoffman has written a letter to House Speaker John Boehner urging him to support “reasonable gun control legislation.”

In an interview today, Hoffman said the gun issue could hurt Republicans at the polls.

“I believe that the Republican Party — and I’m a conservative Republican — I believe the Republican Party faces irrelevancy if we as a party don’t gain a little rational nexus as far as gun control is concerned. I personally believe President Obama is right on the issue of gun control…We really ought to follow what the American public wants and there’s a clear consensus that they’re in favor of stricter gun control,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman said too many Republicans fear being targeted in primaries if they run afoul of the National Rifle Association and its executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre.

“We’re being terrorized by the NRA and Wayne LaPierre right now,” Hoffman said. But Hoffman said siding with the NRA now could give Democrats a weapon against Republicans in the 2014 elections.

“Obama has a great shot at getting a lot of Republicans defeated in the next election if he doesn’t get his gun legislation,” Hoffman said.