Public relations doyenne Vivian Myrtetus, Gov. Charlie Crist‘s former spokeswoman, is setting up her own communications shop after leaving U.S. Sen. George LeMieux‘s office in Washington.

Myrtetus worked on Crist’s campaign for governor and served in a variety of other PR posts in Florida government before going to work for LeMieux after Crist appointed him to fill in for U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, who retired early.

Myrtetus’ Beacon Communications Group in Tallahassee will go up against a cadre of other former governors’ press secretaries PR firms, including Ron Sachs and April Herrle, who both served under the late Gov. Lawton Chiles.

“Bud” Chiles will officially drop out of the governor’s race tomorrow and is throwing his support behind the Democratic nominee, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink.

Chiles – the son of Florida’s last Democrat governor, the late Lawton Chiles for whom he was named -could have been a spoiler in the governor’s race for Democrats who feared the independent candidate could be the Ralph Nader of Florida elections by pulling votes away from Sink. Many Democrats blamed Al Gore’s 2000 election loss to President George W. Bush on Green Party candidate Nader. Gore lost by 537 votes; Nader received 97,421.

Democratic Palm Beach County Commissioner Burt Aaronson wants Bud Chiles to drop his no-party bid for governor, telling the son of the late Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles in a letter that his candidacy could hurt Democrat Alex Sink and help elect Republican Bill McCollum or Rick Scott.

“Our job is to have a Democratic governor,” Aaronson said of the letter to Chiles that he co-signed with county Democratic Party Treasurer Bob Diffenderfer. “We love him (Bud Chiles) and his father was great, but this is not helping the Democrats elect a governor.”

Aaronson’s concern about a no-party candidate taking votes from a Democrat in a statewide race doesn’t necessarily extend to the U.S. Senate contest, where independent Gov. Charlie Crist so far is drawing considerable Democratic support at the expense of Dem Kendrick Meek or Jeff Greene.

“I look at that race slightly differently,” Aaronson said Tuesday. “I look at that race to make sure we don’t have (Republican Senate candidate) Marco Rubio.”

Aaronson said he won’t know the best way to block Rubio until after the Aug. 24 Democratic primary.

“We have three people in the primary (Meek, Greene and former Miami Mayor and health care “capitation” advocate Maurice Ferre). So I want to see what happens in the primary before we do anything.”

WRS Compass, the environmental consulting firm that potential Democratic governor candidate Bud Chiles blasted today, issued a “fact check” response this evening saying that its relationship with the state of Florida goes back to the adminstration of Bud Chiles’ father, the late Gov. Lawton Chiles.

The firm got a contract worth up to $250,000 from the state Department of Environmental Protection this month to help counties respond to the gulf oil spill.

Bud Chiles, who’s considering entering the Democratic primary for governor against Alex Sink,issued a statement today noting that the firm’s CEO, Kathleen Shanahan, was chief of staff for Dick Cheney during the 2000 presidential campaign and transition.

Chiles accused the state of delegating basic responsibilities to a private firm and forcing local governments “to work through a firm whose principal was Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff.”

DEP Secretary Mike Sole said Chiles’ description of WRS’ role was “fundamentally flawed.”

Read the WRS Compass response after the jump….

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