U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, has returned $9,000 in donations from former House Ways & Means Chairman Charlie Rangel after Rangel was forced to give up the powerful spot after questions the belated disclosure of hundreds of thousands of dollars in previously unlisted wealth.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee took the opportunity to note Democrats have returned $378,000 of Rangel’s money, but U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, “continues to hang onto the $5,500 from his ethically-challenged contributor.” Those donations were to Meek’s previous U.S. House campaigns.

Once upon a time (three months ago), Republican Marco Rubio was considered a long-shot contender for the U.S. Senate race. Now, he’s apparently got some political capital to spend.

Rubio’s camp tells us that the former state House speaker has used e-mails and Facebook pleas to raise $42,000 for upstart Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown in the past five days. That’s about 12 percent of what Rubio collected for his own campaign in his first three months as a formal candidate.

Meanwhile, Gov. Charlie Crist is using his own capital to raise money for victims of the Haiti earthquake.

By the way, no official word yet about the much-anticipated fourth-quarter fundraising numbers from Rubio or Crist for their own Senate primary campaigns. Reports are due Jan. 31.

National GOP staff breathed a sigh of relief upon Gov. Charlie Crist’s entree into the U.S. Senate race because they believed the governor’s prolific fundraising talents would mean they wouldn’t have to lend a helping hand financially to his campaign.

But that was before three of Crist’s top fund-raisers were targeted in federal investigations in the past nine months.

And now a fourth, Jupiter sports agent and real estate investor Marc Roberts, is facing a federal lawsuit alleging he defrauded a business partner out of $100 million to support his own “lavish personal lifestyle.”

Crist has “never discriminated” in whom he takes money from, said a former state Republican Party staffer with knowledge of Crist’s fund raising. “Now he’s facing the consequences of not being careful. And it raises questions about his judgment.”

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