Though they are both relative newcomers to Capitol Hill, U.S. Reps. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, and Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, have been key positions in the 112th Congress that convened Wednesday.

Rooney, beginning his second term, will be one of about 20 deputy whips for the GOP. Deutch, who won a special election in April and his first full term in November, will be an assistant Democratic whip.

Whips in both parties are responsible for making head counts and rounding up votes on key pieces of legislation.

Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., ranks third in the House leadership. Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., is chief deputy whip and directly oversees Rooney and other other deputy whips. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, is chief deputy whip for Democrats.

Republicans blasted U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, for voting the Democratic line 98 percent of the time, including his support for the landmark health care and stimulus bills. A billboard depicted Klein as a marionette controlled by liberal Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Klein, who was defeated by Republican Allen West on Nov. 2, was one of 20 Democrats who bucked the party today and voted against a bill to extend the Bush tax cuts only for those making $250,000 a year or less.

The bill passed by a 234-to-188 margin. Click here to see the roll call.

Republicans favor a permanent extension of all the tax cuts. Klein during the campaign favored a one-year extension of all the tax cuts, and reiterated that position today.

“The middle class is the heart and soul of America, and I strongly support middle class tax cuts,” Klein said in a statement released by his office. “However, I couldn’t vote for today’s proposal because it just didn’t go far enough. I have said consistently over the last few months that I believe all tax cuts should be extended for one year while our economy recovers and we work out a stable, long-term tax structure that allows American families and business to reasonably plan ahead.”

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Just one day before the crucial vote that will decide whether his $75 million investment paid off, Rick Scott included West Palm Beach in a last-minute appeal to Republicans.

U.S. Sen. George LeMieux climbed on the stage with Scott, also joined by Palm Beach County homeboys U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, outgoing Senate president and chief financial officer candidate Jeff Atwater, and a host of other local officials.

Mark Foley, who once held Rooney’s Congressional seat, also showed up in the crowd at Park Avenue BBQ Grille.

PBC businessman and longtime GOP donor Llywd Ecclestone, who escaped the restaurant parking lot heat under an awning, said he supports Scott’s plan to get the state’s economy back on track.

“He will create jobs and that’s what we need,” Ecclestone said.

But Scott’s pledge of 700,000 jobs is an ambitious goal, the developer acknowledged.

“It’s going to be difficult. It’s not going to be easy,” Ecclestone said.

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With Democrats increasingly divided on the U.S. presence in Afghanistan, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 308-to-114 late today for a supplemental spending bill that includes $37 billion for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

President Obama’s request got more support from Republicans (160 votes) than Democrats (148 votes). Local U.S. Reps. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, and Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, voted yes. U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, joined 101 other Dems and 12 Republicans in voting no.

U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Miami, did not vote. Meek, who’s running for U.S. Senate, was campaigning in South Florida earlier in the day.

Click here to see the complete roll call.

U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, spoke at the South Florida Tea Party’s first rally in West Palm Beach on Tax Day in 2009. But he’s not one of the 28 Republicans who have signed up for the new House Tea Party Caucus.

“Congressman Rooney is very supportive of the Tea Party Movement and its message of lower taxes, less government and more personal freedom,” Rooney spokesman Michael Mahaffey said.

But, Mahaffey added: “He believes the strength of the Tea Party lies in its grass roots support and its leadership from the people, not from Washington.”

Local U.S. Reps. Ted Deutch, D-Keyboards, and Tom Rooney, R-Drums, joined Micky Dolenz of The Monkees on Capitol Hill Wednesday in a performance of the Neil Diamond-penned Monkees hit I’m A Believer. That’s U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., on guitar.

Dolenz was promoting the Performance Rights Act, which would force radio stations to pay royalties to musicians for playing their music.

Deutch proves himself a capable genre tourist, handling the mid-1960s pop sound here after also accompanying a Delray Beach band on the bluesy Bo Diddley standard Before You Accuse Me back in April.

Here’s a clip of Dolenz plugging the bill and introducing the band….

Mitt Romney will headline a Coral Gables fund-raiser for Attorney General and Republican governor candidate Bill McCollum tonight. McCollum, state chairman for Romney rival Rudy Giuliani during the 2008 presidential race, finds himself trailing his GOP primary race against millionaire Rick Scott.

Romney’s also endorsing 13 other Republican candidates around the state and his Free and Strong America PAC is contributing $5,000 to the Republican Party of Florida.

U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, and Senate President and Chief Financial Officer candidate Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, are among the candidates getting Romney endorsements.

Romney will also be in Jacksonville Tuesday to raise money for state Sen. and state GOP Chairman John Thrasher.

Romney says he’ll decide after the 2010 elections whether he’s running for president in 2012. If he makes a White House bid, he’ll want to have Republican friends in Florida.

PORT ST. LUCIE — The two Democrats hoping to unseat U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, called for “fair trade” rather than “free trade” in remarks to about 70 United Auto Workers retirees.

Read about it here.

Former Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney, knocked out of office by a 2008 sex scandal but recently mulling a run for his old seat against Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, has decided not to enter the race.

Mahoney says Gov. Charlie Crist’s departure from the GOP Thursday shows the Republican Party has moved to the “radical right” and Rooney’s voting record puts him in this “radical movement”

With less than an hour until the qualifying deadline, two little-known Dems — Jim Horn of Palm City and Ed Tautiva of Wellington — have secured spots on the ballot in congressional District 16. National Democrats once entertained high hopes for the seat, but the party’s recruit, Chris Craft, ran an underwhelming campaign and dropped out in March.

Read Mahoney’s statement after the jump….

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Jim Horn of Palm City, who qualified for the ballot Monday as a no-party candidate in congressional District 16, has switched to a Democratic candidacy.

Horn switched his voter registration on Monday from Republican to Democrat, according to the Martin County Elections Office.

Horn wasn’t immediately reachable this morning. His voice message says “Vote independent and change America for ourselves and our children.”

As of this morning, the Florida Division of Elections website lists Horn as the only candidate who has qualified to challenge freshman U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s recruit, Chris Craft, quit the race in March. Frequent filer Stan Smilan qualifed for the ballot as a Democrat on Monday, but withdrew Tuesday. Former Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney, voted out of office in 2008 after a sex scandal, has said he’s considering another run.

Federal candidates have until noon Friday to qualify for the 2010 ballot.

With Friday’s noon deadline approaching for federal candidates to qualify for the 2010 ballot, former Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney — booted from office after a 2008 sex scandal — says he’s still pondering a run for his old seat against freshman U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta.

Rooney beat Mahoney in 2008 after Mahoney admitted to “multiple” extramarital affairs, including one with a woman who had been on his campaign and congressional payrolls. Mahoney, now divorced, says he takes full responsibility for his past conduct.

Since Democrat Chris Craft quit the race in March, Rooney has been without a serious challenge. No-party candidate Jim Horn qualified for the ballot this week. Perennial candidate Stan Smilan qualified Monday as a Democrat, but withdrew today, according to the state Division of Elections.

“I am considering it. I’ve got to make a decision in the next 24 to 36 hours,” Mahoney said this evening. “At the end of the day, I think the district deserves competition.”

Republican congressional candidate, YouTube celebrity and fund-raising phenom Allen West has raked in more than $2 million in contributions for his challenge of U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton. But he’s already spent $977,853 — primarily on a direct-mail campaign with a group of Washington firms.

Reports filed Thursday show West raised $838,445 in the first quarter of 2010 to Klein’s $456,263. It was the second quarter in a row that West out-raised Klein in their nationally watched race. Overall, West has $1.1 million cash on hand while Klein has nearly $2.7 million in the bank.

Democrat Chris Craft’s report shows why he dropped his challenge of U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta. Craft raised only $29,909 in the first quarter before announcing his departure March 26.

Rooney raised $200,974 in the quarter and has $579,527 cash on hand. He was outdone during the quarter by his younger brother, Michigan U.S. House hopeful Brian Rooney, who raised $325,041 and has $443,005 on hand for his race up north.

Former Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney, voted out of office in a 2008 sex scandal, says people have suggested he run again for his old seat. He didn’t unequivocally reject the idea in a phone conversation today, but made it sound highly unlikely.

Mahoney said he’s been doing some business consulting and has helped raise campaign money for U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, and other unnamed Democrats from outside Florida. (Mahoney’s predecessor in Congress and in scandal-tarnished exits, Mark Foley, has also reemerged recently as a political fund-raiser.)

Mahoney lost in 2008 to current U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta. Democratic hopes of recapturing the seat suffered a major blow last month when St. Lucie County Commissioner Chris Craft dropped his challenge of Rooney. Dems have until April 30 to field a replacement candidate.

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Democrat Chris Craft has just sent an e-mail to supporters confirming he’s dropping his bid for U.S. Congress against freshman Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta.

Craft, despite underwhelming fund-raising and the likelihood of little or no support from the national party, says he’s confident he would have won, but needs to focus “overtime” on boosting the local economy in his job as a St. Lucie County commissioner.

Read Craft’s statement after the jump….

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As freshman U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, seeks reelection this year, older brother Pat Rooney Jr. is running for a state House seat and younger brother Brian Rooney is trying to win a Michigan congressional seat.

Read about it this week’s Politics column.

Also: Read about how prosecutors want tougher residency standards in response to Elections Supervisor Susan Bucher’s frequent address changes when she was a state House member. And Robert Wexler returns to South Florida this week.

Undeterred by polls or Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts, Democratic congressional challenger Chris Craft says Congress should press ahead with health care reform.

Craft, hoping to unseat freshman GOP Rep. Tom Rooney of Tequesta in a Republican-leaning district, supported the health care bill that passed the House last year on a 220-to-215 vote with Rooney opposed.

Read about it in this week’s Politics column.

As noted over the weekend, Rooney began 2010 with more than a 7-to-1 financial advantage over Craft. Craft is listed as one of the Democrats’ “recruiting duds” in a campaign money round-up by Politico.com

National Democrats are touting Chris Craft’s challenge of freshman Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney of Tequesta as an “emerging” race this year.

But Craft has yet to emerge as a money-raising rival to the incumbent.

New Federal Election Commission reports show Rooney raised $288,060 during the fourth quarter of 2009 and began 2010 with $460,304 in cash on hand for his reelection bid. Craft, a St. Lucie County commissioner, raised $41,700 during the quarter and has $64,854 on hand.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee this month listed the Rooney-Craft race in Florida’s congressional District 16 as one of 26 “races to watch” for open or GOP-held seats. The list includes 17 “top races” and nine “emerging races.”

Democratic St. Lucie County Commissioner Chris Craft, who’s challenging U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, in a Republican-leaning district, said Wednesday he’s “deeply concerned” that President Obama and Democratic congressional leaders might bypass a formal House-Senate conference on health care and hash out a private deal.

Craft is running as a “moderate and independent voice” in a district that voted for Republican John McCain in 2008. So he raised some eyebrows in the fall when he said he supported the House health care bill. That bill passed on a 220-to-215 vote in which most Dems from McCain districts voted no.

Now that the Senate has also passed a bill, there’s talk of scrapping the traditional conference and jettisoning Obama’s oft-repeated 2008 pledge to have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN.

Craft issued a statement Wednesday calling for a bipartisan solution on health care. Read it after the jump….

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Full-body imaging might have detected that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had stuffed his underwear with explosives before he boarded a Detroit-bound flight on Christmas day.

But a considerable bipartisan majority of U.S. House members are on record opposing the widespread use of such scans in a vote that saw privacy concerns trump security measures. In June, the House voted 310-to-118 for an amendment by Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, that would have prohibited whole-body imaging as a “primary screening” method at airports. The amendment died in the Senate.

Chaffetz’s amendment would have allowed such scans as a “secondary” screening method, but passengers would be given the option of a pat-down search in lieu of whole-body imaging and the Transportation Security Administration would have been banned from “storing, transferring, or copying any images” from the scans.

Local U.S. Reps. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar; Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta; and Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, supported the ban on whole-body imaging. U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, voted against the Chaffetz amendment.

It took 37 days, but GOP state House hopeful Pat Rooney Jr. on Thursday was able to lock down the endorsement of his younger brother, Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney of Tequesta.

Tom Rooney released a statement that praises his brother’s business and charity work and says he is “flattered that my older brother is looking to follow in my footsteps by entering public service.”

Pat Rooney, one of three Republicans running for the northern Palm Beach County seat of term-limited Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter, has also received the backing of former Palm Beach Gardens Councilman Hal Valeche. Valeche, a Republican, was considering running for the seat.

Valeche ran against Tom Rooney and former state Rep. Gayle Harrell in a 2008 GOP primary for Congress. In that campaign, social conservative Valeche tangled with the Rooney family over gambling issues. Pat Rooney Jr. is president of the Palm Beach Kennel Club dog track.