Don’t look now, but Attorney General Bill McCollum is doing a decent job collecting money for his Republican gubernatorial race.

Nearly all of the money-related headlines have gone to Naples businessman Rick Scott, who, along with his wife, have poured at least $31 million of their personal fortune into the Republican gubernatorial primary.

But by spending his own money, Scott has given McCollum the entire field of the traditional Republican donors, who helped Charlie Crist and Tom Gallagher raise nearly $30 million in 2006.

McCollum and his allies have spent nearly $14 million so far, about $1 million more than Crist spent in the 2006 primary.

On the collection side, McCollum has received $1.3 million from Florida taxpayers as part of the state’s public campaign financing program, which Scott is trying to get a court to dismantle.

And we reported Tuesday that McCollum’s political advocacy group, a 527 known as Florida First Initiative, brought in $500,000 from the U.S. Chamber (the Florida Chamber endorsed him today). McCollum has helped his 527 collect $1.5 million since July 8. Broken down that’s an average donation of $45,000. Or about $77,000 per day.

Meanwhile, McCollum’s campaign has made another big TV purchase, peppering $1 million across the state for the next month. The buy is mostly — if not all — on Fox News and focuses on Orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville TV markets.

Scott, however, continues outspend McCollum about 3-to-1 on TV. A report from ad buyers show’s Scott’s 527 group, Let’s Get to Work, will spend another $1.8 million in the next week. Most of that money is spent in Tampa, Orlando and Miami markets.

Some Democrats are crying foul over a group Democrat Dave Aronberg has used to raise $128,000 for his attorney general primary: “Florida Mainstream Democrats.”

If the name sounds familiar, that’s because it should.

It was first coined in 2004 for a group founded by 18 Democratic state lawmakers – including Aronberg, who served as chairman for about three years – to attract conservative voters to the party and support pro-business, moderate candidates seeking political office outside the traditional liberal enclaves in South Florida.

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UPDATE: We missed one donor. A $2,400 donation from Thomas Petway doesn’t show up in a search of the FEC’s electronic files. But the paper records clearly show his contribution. So of the 20 Republicans who signed the letter, nine donated to Crist and eight still have money in his campaign. The blog has been updated to correct the error.

Twenty Republican fund-raisers signed a letter today calling on newly independent Gov. Charlie Crist to return campaign contributions he received from GOP donors.

“As part of your transition into this new phase of your political career, we respectfully request that you return every penny of donor money from every donor who asks for a refund. For those of us who have donated to your Senate campaign, you can start by refunding in full the contributions we have made,” the letter reads.

But just eight of the 20 have any money sitting in Crist’s campaign coffers, records show.

One of the 20 who signed the letter, Gay Gaines of Palm Beach, hasn’t given to Crist in at least 15 years. She donated $2,400 this year to Crist’s GOP rival, Marco Rubio, whose campaign circulated the letter. .

“I’ve never thought he was very dependable,” Gaines said of Crist. “I guess my instincts were right.”

Former U.S. Ambassador Al Hoffman helped write the letter, but he asked for — and received — his cash back in February, just weeks after Hoffman helped push former state GOP chairman Jim Greer out the door.

“When I discovered, in my view, that Charlie was complicit in the Jim Greer debacle, I couldn’t swallow it,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman said he believes Crist was aware that Greer and Delmar Johnson, then the party’s executive director, were diverting 10 percent of all party donations their LLC known as Victory Strategies.

“How could he not have been aware of that?,” Hoffman said. “If he wasn’t aware of it it means he was totally incompetent. If he was aware of it, he was complicit. Either way it’s pretty damning.”

Here’s our story of the day’s events in the U.S. Senate race.

And keep reading for the text of the letter along with the list of which signatories actually gave to Crist’s Senate campaign.

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Gov. Charlie Crist says his independent campaign hasn’t just helped his Democratic and Republican opponents. Crist says today that “the response has been overwhelming.”

Crist writes in a fund-raising plea that since his announcement Thursday his campaign has attracted thousands of new volunteers, 800 new donors and received more Internet traffic to his campaign website and social network pages since he announced his intent to run for U.S. Senate.

“This is no accident,” Crist writes. “Floridians want something different – real solutions, not political posturing. We’ve got momentum and we need to keep it going.”

Crist asks for valuable small-dollar donations in an attempt to collect $100,000 by May 10.

“If we succeed, we’ll sound a powerful message – the people of Florida have a voice and they want to be heard. This race has become so much more than about any one person. The entire country is watching and joining in our fight to change the broken ways of Washington,” Crist writes.

U.S. Senate campaigns for Democrat Kendrick Meek and Republican Marco Rubio say they’ve had a surge in contributions since Gov. Charlie Crist dumped his Republican affiliation and announced he’d run as an independent.

Rubio’s folks say they had 2,400 online donations since April 23 for their “flip the switch” campaign keyed to Crist’s party change.

Meek’s campaign announced 1,340 online contributions since Thursday. Some believe the three-way race created by Crist’s decision gives Meek an advantage in the November election.

But first, Meek will have to get past billionaire Jeff Greene of Palm Beach, who has vowed to spend whatever he needs to win the party’s nomination. We reported earlier today that Meek will raise money with Magic Johnson in Miami Beach later this week.

The spike in contributions for Meek was also helped by a blast e-mail from former presidential candidate Howard Dean, who asked supporters to give to Meek’s campaign.

“He’s not some ideological extremist and he’s not governed by raw political ambition,” Dean said.

Republican Marco Rubio announced today he collected $3.6 million in campaign contributions during the first three months of the year.

It’s a huge amount: it doubles his collections from the fourth quarter of 2009, surpasses the $2 million his U.S. Senate rival, Gov. Charlie Crist collected in the final months of last year and and should well exceed Crist’s 2010 total so far.

President Obama will be in Miami on April 15 for to raise money for Organizing for America and the Democratic National Committee. The $250 tickets are here for the event scheduled at The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts.

Obama will attend a private reception earlier in the day at the home of Gloria and Emilio Estafan.

That was the total pledged to Marco Rubio’s U.S. Senate Republican primary campaign against Gov. Charlie Crist in a pair of online fund-raisers known as “money bombs.”

It’s a huge number.

It doesn’t beat Crist’s best stretch of this race (he collected $1 million over three days in June). But it is 25 percent of what Rubio raised in the first nine months of his campaign and 41 percent of all the cash he had on hand to start the year, about $2.1 million.

Crist reported a total of $7.6 million in campaign cash to start 2010.

The money bombs also brought more than 8,000 donations directly to the campaign. As a comparison, Rubio’s campaign had about 11,000 donors through its first six months.

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UPDATE: Florida Democrats are giddy about this news. They’re not claiming they’ll collect more money than the RPOF this year. Instead, they say their analysis shows that “the Florida Democratic Party has never been in better financial shape entering an election year.”

The Republican Party of Florida announced today it raised $4.5 million for the final three months of 2009.

That would be the largest quarterly total of the year, and slightly more than the $4.3 million the party collected in the same time in 2007 – the last non-election year. For the year, the party collected about $1.6 million less than it did in 2007.

2009 RPOF fundraising:

1Q: $3.9 million

2Q: $1.3 million

3Q: $3.8 million

4Q: $4.5 million

The announcement comes just days before the party’s annual meeting in Orlando, where party Chairman Jim Greer’s job is expected to be a main topic of discussion. Last week, a dozen of the party’s top fundraisers signed a letter calling for Greer’s removal.

Former Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney was in Boca Raton this past weekend for a home-cooked Italian dinner and a little fund-raising at the $2 million-home of real estate investor Mark Guzzetta. Romney collected $25,000 for his political action committee, Free & Strong America.

Check out Page2Live for a photo gallery from the event.

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.

Gov. Charlie Crist announced he raised another $2.4 million for his U.S. Senate campaign, a third-quarter collection that is roughly the same amount fellow Republicans Jeff Atwater, Bill McCollum and Marco Rubio combined to collect for their respective statewide campaigns in the same time.

Crist said he has $6.2 million on hand after about five months of fundraising.

Crist said the money will help “ensure that our campaign has the financial means necessary to take the fight for the people of Florida to our nation’s capital.”

But the campaign for Rubio, Crist’s Republican primary opponent, said Crist will need “every last cent.”

“Money can’t wipe away Charlie Crist’s record of support for wasteful stimulus spending, historic tax increases and cap-and-trade,” Rubio campaign spokesman Alex Burgos said.

In an indication that Republican Bill McCollum might have a less-than-stellar fundraising total for the third quarter, his campaign spokesman Shannon Gravitte released this statement today:

“While our third quarter fundraising numbers are still being finalized, the published reports will show a combined total from the McCollum campaign and the Republican Party of Florida of more than $4.5 million. The collective emphasis this quarter on Party building to benefit all Republican candidates has been a tremendous success and we continue to meet all fundraising goals.

“Bill McCollum is the clear leader in polls, job approval and support across Party lines. With 13 months until Election Day, we are pleased with where we stand and hard at work to continue this early momentum.”

That’s the total U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Bartow, has after collecting about $229,000 in the third quarter. He’s facing state Sen. Carey Baker, R-Eustis, in a Republican primary for state agriculture commissioner, one of three Florida Cabinet positions and among the five statewide races on the ballot in 2010.

Read his press release here.

Florida candidates and political parties are making a mad scramble to collect small donations before a midnight deadline for third quarter campaign finance reports.

The Florida Democratic Party says if you donate $20 or more before tomorrow, you’ll have a chance to win a free night at Disney’s Yacht and Beach Club during the party’s state conference next month.

That got us wondering – what are other pols promising for your money?

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Republican Gov. Charlie Crist next week will look to add to his staggering pile of campaign cash by heading the home of Jill & Bobby Zarin to raise money for his U.S. Senate campaign. The fundraiser (read the invite here) was first reported by the Orlando Sentinel this morning.

Zarin is one of the stars of the Bravo! show “Real Housewives of New York” and is close friends with Carole Rome Crist, the governor’s wife. Zarin, who was invited to the couple’s wedding in St. Peterburg last year, describes Carole as one her best friends and talks about Carole’s expensive, Hampton society parties in an episode called “Season One: Lost Footage.”

The host committee for Zarin’s fundraiser for Crist is peppered with NYC socialites and also includes Donald Trump and New York Yankee slugger Johnny Damon.

State Sen. Dave Aronberg’s campaign for Florida’s top law-enforcement job is getting fund-raising help from an ex-convict whose latest arrest came as recently as last year.

Jeffrey R. Gibson, a Jupiter boxing instructor and partner in a hormone therapy product Web site, recently recruited contributors to a Palm Beach Gardens dinner to pump up the senator’s run for attorney general. “We need somebody we know and trust in this office,” Gibson wrote in an e-mail to invitees.

But court records from Arkansas, California and South Florida show the champion kickboxer-turned-businessman has an arrest record that doesn’t match the squeaky-clean image a law enforcement candidate might want from someone publicly supporting his campaign and soliciting contributions.

Read the rest of Post reporter Tony Doris’ story here.

Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Marco Rubio announced today he collected $340,000 in contributions during the second quarter. More than 40 percent of that total came from online contributions. Rubio said he received a donation from each of the 50 states.

A quick note on that total: it’s more than the $255,000 he raised in the exploratory phase of his campaign in the first quarter, but less than the $363,000 that Democrat Dan Gelber raised for his U.S. Senate campaign during the first three months of the year. Gelber, who was in the state legislative session for a month of that time, was competing for dollars against U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek. Meek reported $1.5 million during the same time and Gelber later stepped away from the race and is now running for state attorney general. (Meek told us last night he’ll report about $1.2 million for the second quarter)

Of course, Rubio is running against a popular sitting governor, which makes his task considerably more difficult. (more…)

U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, above left, said tonight that the country will probably need another round of stimulus money before long.

“There is more that needs to be done,” Meek said in an interview.

Meek, the frontrunner for the Democratic U.S Senate nomination, was responding to a story in the Palm Beach Post on Sunday that showed Florida is receiving fewer stimulus dollars per-person than any state in the country. Meek said he was planning to review the numbers when he returns to Washington.

“I’m going to pay very close attention to that,” Meek said. “It’s definitely worth looking at and seeing if there are future stimulus packages that Florida gets its fair share.”

Meek said the economy was not turning around as fast as Democrats had hoped. He said plenty of jobs had been saved with stimulus money, but not enough new jobs have been created.

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Gov. Charlie Crist, who is facing an aggressive early challenge from Marco Rubio for the GOP U.S. Senate nomination, sent out a fundraising letter today that starts to layout his own campaign.

It’s noteworthy in that Crist so far has largely refused to answer questions about national issues. He doesn’t include any of his positions in the note, but says his leadership in the past 30 months has brought “real results” in the state.

“My common sense conservative approach to government has provided real results for the people of Florida, and I believe can help right the ship in Washington. You have trusted me to fight for the people of Florida for nearly two decades. As a State Senator, as Education Commissioner, Attorney General and most recently as your Governor, I have worked to protect the quality of life for families and businesses here in the Sunshine State.”

Crist also highlights his campaign web site, which has been recently redesigned to include endorsements and a narrative bio that starts with his immigrant grandfather. The site does not include positions on any particular federal issues.