After a U.S. Senate fundraiser last night in Palm Beach Gardens, Republican Gov. Charlie Crist is in the Treasure Coast today for a mix of official events and campaigning. (Crist flew commercial on Wednesday and did not travel on a state plane for this trip, a state official said.) His schedule today:

As Gov. Crist:

10:30 a.m.: St. Lucie River and Estuary tour with Florida Environmental Protection Department Secretary Mike Sole, Sunset Bay Marina and Anchorage, Stuart.

12:30 p.m.: Indian River State College visit, Fort Pierce.

2 p.m.: Indian River County economic development roundtable, Indian River County Chamber of Commerce, Vero Beach.

As candidate Crist:

5 p.m.: $500/head reception, hosted by John Walsh of America’s Most Wanted, at Quail Valley River Club, Vero Beach.

As candidate & Gov. Crist:

6:30 p.m.: Indian River GOP Lincoln Day Dinner, The Club at Pointe West, Vero Beach.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum is bringing buddy Rudy Giuliani back to Florida for a breakfast fundraiser in West Palm Beach on March 12.

McCollum, who endorsed Giuliani in the ‘08 Republican presidential primary in Florida, is holding his $40/person fundraiser at Howley’s Restaurant on South Dixie Highway at 7:30 a.m.

“It is always nice to enjoy a good meal with friends prior to a day on the campaign trail,” McCollum writes in the invitation.

The host committee for the event includes Palm Beach County Commissioner Steve Abrams, Teresa Bailey, Marie Davis, Palm Beach Councilman Bill Diamond, Sid Dinerstein, Peter Feaman, Jay Goldfarb, Fran Hancock, Mark Hoch, Beth Kigel, Greg Langowski, Cheryl Mullings, Property Appraiser Gary Nikolits, Joe Penkala, Jonathan Satter, Tom Sliney, Ben Starling, Joy Stone and Palm Beach Shores Mayor John Workman

Once I had a love and it was a gas

Soon turned out to be a pain in the ass

Those are the lyrics from the album version of Blondie’s 1979 chart topper, “Heart of Glass.”

On Saturday, Republicans will be able to live the lyrics in the morning and party to them at night.

Florida Republican brass have a special meeting in the morning to replace ousted Chairman Jim Greer. Greer was forced out over concerns about party spending and what many felt was his inappropriate influence in primary races.

Of course, the story doesn’t end there with Republican struggles: They have a contested race to replace Greer, hand-wringing over a secret contract that paid the party’s executive director $400,000 and new questions over whether Senate President Jeff Atwater, former House Speaker Marco Rubio and others should release their party credit card statements.

Sounds like a party, right?

Actually, the party is later in the day when the GOP state Senate caucus host the “Universal Orlando Mardi Gras Celebration” to raise money for the party. The tentative schedule calls for an afternoon tour of Disney, a dinner reception and an 8:30 p.m. “VIP viewing” of Blondie in concert.

While former House Speaker Ray Sansom gets grilled on Monday over accusations that he wielded his influence in many improper ways, current House Republican leaders will be strolling the Bermuda grass of the Palmer Legends Country Club in The Villages.

House Speaker Larry Cretul and designated future speakers Dean Cannon and Will Weatherford are hosting a Republican fundraiser at the Arnold Palmer-designed course on Monday and Tuesday.

No word on whether the Republican Senator-elect will come to Florida and campaign for either Rubio or Gov. Charlie Crist in Florida’s GOP U.S. Senate primary. But Rubio supporters are hoping to tap into the momentum from the Massachusetts phenomenon.

Citing Brown’s historic victory on Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint sent a fund-raising letter to supporters today asking to help raise $100k for Rubio by Feb. 10. (The date is an anniversary of sorts.)

“Conservatives across the country recently supported a moneybomb for Senator-elect Scott Brown, which raised $1.3 million for his campaign in just 24 hours. If we can raise just a fraction of that amount for Marco Rubio’s campaign, it will give him the momentum and resources he needs to win,” wrote DeMint, R-S.C.

Republicans aren’t the only one trying to raise money in Brown’s wake. Democratic U.S. House candidate Ted Deutch of Boca Raton penned a similar plea on Wednesday.

Jim Greer speaking at a press conference in October 2008

A dozen of Florida’s top Republican fund-raisers called for the resignation of their state party chairman in a letter late Tuesday, saying without his removal Republicans had a “diminished” chance for success in a crucial election next year.

“There must be a change in leadership to successfully execute the strategic plan for victory in 2010 election cycle for Republicans,” according to the letter.

Jim Greer has resisted several resignation calls this year from party activists. “He intends to serve the remainder of his term,” Greer’s spokeswoman said Wednesday.

But the letter from the fund-raisers, who have combined to personally donate more than $2.1 million to the state party in the past decade, is the biggest hurdle yet for Greer, Palm Beach County Republican Chairman Sid Dinerstein said. The letter includes names of Republicans with national fund-raising reputations, including Ned Siegel of Boca Raton and Al Hoffman of Fort Myers.

Story here. Read the letter here.

Gov. Charlie Crist has canceled his second fundraiser in Palm Beach County in four days due to a state emergency.

After the deadly shootings in Orlando on Friday, Crist's U.S. Senate campaign canceled a $500/head reception at the Jupiter home of Lorenza amp; Larry Parmet, the CEO and president, respectively, of Sundance Products, a recycling company that in February shutdown its three Georgia plants that employed about 330 workers. Other hosts for that reception were trial attorney Brian LaBovick and his wife, Ester; and Allbury Bros. Boats President Jeff Lichterman.

On Monday, Tropical Storm Ida forced the campaign to scratch a $4,800/person reception at the corporate offices of The Falcone Group in Boca Raton. The hosts include the co-owner of Life Insurance Concepts Inc. Ted Bernstein as well as Art Falcone and Marc Roberts, two South Florida developers who have sunk $1.2 million into the Committee on Critical Challenges.

Careful readers of Post On Politics will remember that political action committee as the one created to push a constitutional amendment allowing casinos in Miami. The petition drive stalled, but as of April the group was still paying its Fort Lauderdale-based advisers.

You might recognize that adviser: Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler.

Biden

Florida, Arizona and California, Biden said, “got killed when this bubble burst, and you’re still getting killed.”

But nationally, Biden said the economy was improving, according to a pool report of the fundraiser.

“We’re getting to the end of this toboggan run,” Biden said. “We’re no longer talking about a depression. We’re talking about the shape of a recovery.”

“We inherited a God-awful mess,” he said

Biden spoke for about 30 minutes and then took questions behind closed doors for another half-hour

Among the crowd of about 60 people — who paid between $1,000 and $30,000 to attend — were state Sens. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, and Jeremy Ring, D-Parkland; Fort Lauderdale attorney Mitchell Berger; and Palm Beach County Democratic Chairman Mark Alan Siegel.

The fundraiser, for the Democratic National Committee and Organizing for America, was held at the home of Mark Gilbert.

Supporters cheer as President Barack Obama speaks at a Democratic fundraiser in Miami on Monday. (AP)

From President Obama’s speech last night at the Democratic fundraiser in Miami Beach:

“Here’s the thing about the Recovery Act people don’t seem to remember. It wasn’t just the most progressive tax cut policy in American history. It wasn’t just emergency relief for states and individuals. It was also — people don’t realize this — the single largest federal investment in education in our history.

“It was the largest investment in clean energy in our history. It was the largest boost to medical research and basic research in our history. It was the single largest investment in infrastructure since Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System back in the 1950s. And that’s putting people back to work all across Florida and all across America.”

The full text of his speech after the jump.

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The Hill reports this morning that Republican Gov. Charlie Crist will be in Las Vegas on Oct. 29 for a fundraiser with “perhaps the Republican Party’s wealthiest donor.”

Crist will benefit from a fundraiser at the Palazzo Hotel and Casino, one of the newest casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, on Oct. 29. His host, Las Vegas Sands Corp. CEO Sheldon Adelson, is the 26th-richest man in America, according to Forbes magazine.

Adelson funded the conservative group Freedom’s Watch during the 2008 campaign, spending millions of dollars to attack then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Democratic candidates up and down the ballot.

But the economic downturn hit Las Vegas and the tourism industry hard, and Adelson lost $24 billion — reportedly more than any other single American. He has since quit politics, and Freedom’s Watch folded.

Also hosting the event is Sig Rogich, the prominent Nevada Republican political consultant who worked in the White House for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and is co-chairman of the Republican Governors Association’s finance committee.

Rogich, who ordinarily makes news by pumping up Republican candidates, last hit headlines with an unusual endorsement of Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), whom he said had the seniority to help the Silver State through an unusually difficult economic period.

Palm Beach Town Councilman Bill Diamond will open his island home Wednesday for a $500-per-plate luncheon and photo op with Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum. Invite here.

McCollum, the state’s attorney general, is expected to face Democratic state CFO Alex Sink in the 2010 election. Sink was leading McCollum, $2.4 million to $1 million after the most recent campaign finance reports through June 30.

Diamond

“I’m proud to call Bill McCollum my friend,” Diamond said.

Diamond and McCollum were both supporters of Republican Rudy Giuliani’s 2008 presidential campaign.

Along with Diamond and his wife, Regine Traulsen, the host committee for the fundraiser includes:

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