All but a baker’s dozen of GOP state House and Senate members are backing Republican gubernatorial nominee Rick Scott, who ran as an “outsider” in a brutal GOP primary against Attorney General Bill McCollum.

Scott released a list of campaign co-chairmen that included nearly all of the state legislature’s Republicans, some of whom backed McCollum in the primary and objected at the time that Scott, who spent $50 million of his own money in the primary, couldn’t be trusted.

McCollum has refused to endorse Scott in the general election against Democrat Alex Sink.

The list of GOP legislators who haven’t signed on either, according to the campaign document, include:

Senate Majority Leader Alex Diaz de la Portilla, Sens. Victor Crist, Nancy Detert, Rudy Garcia, Steve Oelrich, and Alex Villalobos, who publicly endorsed Sink this week.

Also missing was Ft. Lauderdale Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, who’s running against Democrat Rep. Kelly Skidmore in the race to replace Senate President Jeff Atwater. Atwater’s stepping down to run for chief financial officer.

State Rep. Kelly Skidmore, a Boca Raton Democrat hoping to replace Jeff Atwater in the state Senate, quickly turned Gov. Charlie Crist’s call for a special session into a fundraising plea. Keep reading to see the e-mail sent to supporters today.

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Republicans running for the Florida Senate District 25 and 27 seats are scheduled to appear at a “Town Hall Debate” Thursday sponsored by the Republican Club of the Palm Beaches and South Florida 912. The event is at 6:30 p.m. at First Baptist Church at 1101 South Flagler Drive.

In District 25, state Reps. Ellyn Bogdanoff of Fort Lauderdale and Carl Domino of Jupiter are running for the GOP nomination to succeed Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, who is running for chief financial officer. The Republican winner will face Democratic state Rep. Kelly Skidmore and no-party candidate Miranda Rosenberg in November.

The District 27 GOP race features former Wellington councilwoman Lizbeth Benacquisto, retired pilot Michael Lameyer and former state Rep. Sharon Merchant. The seat is now held by state Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, who is running for attorney general. Democrats Pete Burkert and Kevin Rader are also running.

A tax cut on sales of boats worth more than $300,000 was approved by the Florida House tonight on a 79-36 vote that divided the Palm Beach County Democrats.

Supporters argued that the break, which caps sales tax bills on boat purchases at $18,000, is supposed to help boat builders, who Republicans said are increasingly leaving the state. (The bill is entitled the “Florida Maritime Full Employment Act” and a similar Senate bill includes an identical cap on plane purchases.)

Rep. Tom Grady, R-Naples, even disputed that his bill could accurately be called a tax break. “This bill focuses on a tax that’s not being collected because … you can buy boats in other states and not pay a tax.”

But opponents said the bill would do little to help the 1.1 million Floridians suffering from unemployment and thousands more whose home values have collapsed.

“I’d like to re-title the bill the Florida Working Person’s Protection Act and create a sales tax exemption on underwear,” said Rep. Adam Fetterman, D-Port St. Lucie. “At least then we’ll be doing something that will help every Floridian.”

Three of the six Democrats who helped the Republican majority approve the bill were from Palm Beach County: Joe Abruzzo, Mack Bernard and Kelly Skidmore. The Palm Beach Democrats who opposed the bill were Mary Brandenburg, Mark Pafford, Kevin J.G. Rader and Maria Sachs.

(Just by way of reminder – another Palm Beach County Democrat, U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, pushed to include breaks for the yacht industry in the federal stimulus package.)

Senate President-designate Mike Haridopolos, the Merritt Island Republican who is the GOP’s Senate campaign honcho for 2010, announced today he’s backing state Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, in the Republican primary for the Palm Beach-Broward seat of current Senate Prez Jeff Atwater.

Bogdanoff faces state Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter, in the GOP primary to replace Atwater, who’s running for chief financial officer. The GOP winner will face Democratic state Rep. Kelly Skidmore of Boca Raton.

Also endorsing Bogdanoff: state Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, whose district includes some of Domino’s northern Palm Beach County constituents, and Sens. Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, and Don Gaetz, R-Niceville.

TALLAHASSEE — Former Democratic state Rep. Irving Slosberg of Boca Raton was at the Capitol today to promote Safe Teen Driver Week with Florida Transportation Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos.

Look for him to file Friday as a candidate for his old Palm Beach-Broward state House seat.

Slosberg, was elected to the House in 2000 as a traffic safety crusader after his 14-year-old daughter was killed in a 1996 car wreck. He championed a variety of seat belt laws and other traffic safety measures before leaving in 2006 to pursue a state Senate bid. Slosberg lost a costly and bitter Dem primary to eventual Sen. Ted Deutch, who was boosted by the support of former U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler.

This time around, former Wexler chief of staff and political consultant Eric Johnson is expected to help Slosberg’s bid for the District 90 House seat now held by Rep. Kelly Skidmore, D-Boca Raton. Skidmore is leaving to run for state Senate. Educator Sheldon “Klassy” Klasfeld, a Democrat, is the only other candidate in the race.

The bill (HB 315) would bar adoption agencies from making potential parents reveal whether they have guns or ammunition in their home. It passed its first hurdle, the Florida House Health & Family Services Policy Council, on a 15-0 vote.

From The News Service of Florida:

The only significant challenge came from Rep. Kelly Skidmore, D-Boca Raton, who said she didn’t agree with Horner’s view about the motives behind the agency’s questions.

“I do object to the assumption that the question was asked for nefarious reasons,” Skidmore said. “The question was asked … to make sure that children would be safe in an environment they’d never been before and where people had not had children before, (not) to document people and register weapons.”

Sen. Thad Altman, R-Viera, is sponsoring the Senate version (SB 530).

Palm Beach County voters can expect two blockbuster state Senate races if trends from recent campaign finance reports hold up.

In two primary battles among candidates hoping to replace Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, the candidates combined to collect more than $305,000 during the third quarter. The four have a total of $826,000 on hand, more than 10 months away from the August primary.

In the race to replace Sen. Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, collected $132,921 from July through September. About 20 percent came from insurers and attorneys.

Read the rest here. The story was printed in the Oct. 15 edition of The Palm Beach Post.

To see how all the bankrolls are shaping up for candidates in contested races on the Palm Beach County and Treasure Coast, click here.

DELRAY BEACH — Saying he can’t run for office while going through a divorce, Nick Loeb is terminating his state Senate bid and pledging to spend more than $100,000 of his own money to give full refunds to everyone who contributed to his campaign.

Loeb, a Republican who had former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani come to Palm Beach County to headline a May fund-raiser, said he collected more than $300,000 in contributions and spent more than $100,000 on his campaign for the Palm Beach-Broward legislative seat of Senate President Jeff Atwater, who’s running for chief financial officer in 2010.

Loeb’s wife, Anna, filed for divorce this month. Nick Loeb said he and his wife have been separated since July, when he said Anna Loeb reconnected with an old boyfriend while she was visiting her native Sweden.

Anna Loeb’s attorney, Michael Walsh, was not immediately reachable this afternoon to comment on Nick Loeb’s version events.

“I wish things could be different. This is not what I wanted. I have tried to reconcile but this is what she wants,” Nick Loeb said.

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Former Republican U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw of Fort Lauderdale is listed on the host committee for an Oct. 13 fund-raiser in West Palm Beach and an Oct. 15 event in Deerfield Beach for the state Senate campaign of state Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter.

Shaw was also on the host committee for an Aug. 28 fund-raiser in Boca Raton for one of Domino’s GOP primary rivals, state Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale.

The invitation to Domino’s Oct. 15 fund-raiser also lists Broward County GOP Chairman Chip LaMarca as a host committee member. But LaMarca has endorsed Bogdanoff in the Republican Senate primary.

What gives?

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Don’t expect any YouTubed confrontations when U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, hosts a town hall meeting later this month to discuss the 1,018-page House Democratic health care bill.

Klein is planning a “telephone town hall” that he says will reach far more constituents than an in-the-flesh event.

Republican challenger Allen West says Klein’s a chicken.

“The unwillingness to stand in front of your constituents can only be called cowardice,” said West.

Klein dismissed West’s claim. He said the teleconference has been planned for weeks and was not a reaction to the recent transformation of town hall events from soporific C-SPAN affairs to shout-fests that go viral on the Internet.

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On his way to winning the state House District 78 seat last year, state Rep. Kevin Rader, D-Delray Beach, often reminded voters that he actually lived in the district while Democratic primary rival Steve Nichol did not and candidate Steven Perman had merely rented an apartment there while owning a house in Broward County.

Now Rader is entertaining thoughts of running next year in a state Senate district where he doesn’t live.

He has plenty of company.

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With state Rep. Kelly Skidmore, D-Boca Raton, announcing late Thursday that she’s running for state Senate in 2010, several Democrats are expressing interest in her Palm Beach-Broward state House seat.

Tara Laxer, an aide to Democratic state Sen. Ted Deutch of Boca Raton, is considering a run in a district that seems to have a thing for Senate aides. Skidmore was an aide to Deutch’s Senate predecessor, current U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, before she won the seat in 2006.

Other Dems to watch: former state Rep. Irving Slosberg, who in the past has said “anything’s possible” if a south-county seat opens up; insurance agent Len Turesky; educator Sheldon Klasfeld; and Democratic activist Steve Nichol.

Republicans need not apply. Democrats hold a 54-to-23 percent registration edge in Skidmore’s District 90 and the GOP hasn’t fielded a candidate there in recent memory.

State Rep. Kelly Skidmore, D-Boca Raton, will enter the 2010 race for the state Senate seat of Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, who is running for chief financial officer.

Skidmore, serving her second House term, does not live in Atwater’s Senate District 25 but said she would have “no problem moving back into the district where I have lived most of my life.”

Palm Beach-Broward District 25 has a Republican registration edge of roughly 38 percent to 36 percent. But Democrat Barack Obama carried the district in November’s presidential election.

Three Republicans have already announced they are running to succeed Atwater: state Reps. Ellyn Bogdanoff of Fort Lauderdale and Carl Domino of Jupiter and businessman Nick Loeb of Delray Beach.

Former Democratic state Sen. Skip Campbell has said he’s interested in running for the District 25 Senate seat.

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Latest south-county internal Democratic feud: Palm Beach County Commissioner Burt Aaronson is steamed at state Rep. Kelly Skidmore after hearing that Skidmore was speculating on his early departure.

Aaronson says he’s not leaving early.

Skidmore says she didn’t say what Aaronson thinks she said.

Read about it here.

About 300 people showed up in front of the state Capitol today to hear Stuart Milk, left, nephew of slain gay rights leader Harvey Milk, support several gay rights bills introduced in the legislature this year. The rally with Milk, of Broward County, was organized by Equality Florida.

Two of the proposed changes he wants the legislature to approve come from Palm Beach County lawmakers.

Rep. Mary Brandenburg, D-West Palm Beach, has legislation (HB 413) that would let gay couples adopt children.

Rep. Kelly Skidmore and Sen. Ted Deutch, both Boca Raton Democrats, have companion bills (SB 2012 & HB 397) that would make it illegal to fire someone or deny them housing based on sexual orientation.

Brandenburg’s bill hasn’t received a committee hearing the past two years and probably won’t fair much better this year. Skidmore told the crowd today the gay rights bills have an uphill climb in the legislature.