After helping secure the state’s national prominence in selecting the GOP presidential candidate by moving up the primary, Senate President Mike Haridopolos said he’ll be watching the election returns at home with his roommate, Senate budget chief JD Alexander, tonight.

“I’m low-keying it. I’ve been high-key enough in getting this early election,” Haridopolos, a Mitt Romney supporter, said during his weekly Q-and-A with reporters this afternoon. “Despite a lot of anger from some folks even in my own party…I think it clearly has come up aces for us.”

Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney and political groups supporting the candidates have spent about $25 million on campaign ads, Haridopolos said, and the early date has helped fire up Republican voters, more than 600,000 of whom had already cast their ballots before today’s election. Florida Republicans gave up half their delegates in the winner-take-all election by moving the date up and breaking national GOP rules.

“I’m looking forward to seeing the returns tonight, and I expect Mitt Romney to win,” Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, said.

Gov. Rick Scott told FOX Business Network today that tomorrow’s Sunshine State GOP primary could be make-or-break for Newt Gingrich, trailing Mitt Romney in recent Florida polls by double digits.

“It looks like Florida is going to choose. It’s going to be tough, I think it will be hard on Newt, if he doesn’t win Florida, to go forward, because Governor Romney has a good campaign going from the standpoint of good organization and he’s raised a lot of money,” Scott told FOX Business Network’s Follow the Money host Eric Bolling in a show to be aired at 10 p.m. tonight.

Scott hasn’t endorsed any of the candidates in the primary, but he’s talked up Romney in recent interviews, praising the former Massachusetts governor’s business acumen and opining that Latino voters prefer Romney to the twice-divorced and admitted former lady’s man Gingrich because Romney is a family man committed to his wife.

Tomorrow’s election defining the GOP nominee is exactly what Republican lawmakers hoped for when the moved Florida’s primary up from its previously scheduled date, incurring the wrath of national GOP leaders. State Republicans are being punished by losing half their delegates to the GOP convention, and because of the early date, Florida is now a winner-take-all-delegates match.

Scott also told FBN that the winner needs to sell his jobs plan – as Scott himself did (with the help of his own $73 million) in his gubernatorial campaign – to Floridians.

Romney, who with Gingrich and “Super-PACs” on both sides have traded nasty ads, has done a better job of getting his message out, Scott told Bolling.

“I hope it has nothing to do with the negative ads. But somebody, one of these two, is going to go out there and really sell that they’ve got a better jobs plan than the other one. That’s who I think is going to win tomorrow,” Scott, who will vote in Leon County tomorrow morning at 8 a.m., said. Unlike most of his predecessors, Scott has registered to vote with his new address at the governor’s mansion.

Asked if he was leaning toward endorsing Romney, Scott remained coy.

“I’m not leaning,” he said.

Once the anti-establishment candidate, Gov. Rick Scott is full of praise – without officially endorsing – Mitt Romney, who’s garnered the support of some of the Sunshine State’s top GOP insiders.

Scott has defended Romney’s business background and today told CNN‘s Candy Crowley that Hispanic voters prefer the former Massachusetts governor because of his family values.

Scott’s comments come as Romney and Newt Gingrich sweep the state hoping to nail down the all-or-nothing convention delegate prize on Tuesday’s primary, with a lot of the focus on the state’s Latino voters crucial to the GOP primary.

This morning on CNN’s State of the Union, Crowley asked Scott about a recent poll show Romney outstripping Newt Gingrich among Hispanic voters by 49-23 percent.

“Look, the Latino vote cares about family. I mean, if you look at Gov. Romney’s family, he’s been very successful. He’s built a great family, very committed to his wife,” Scott said. “He’s somebody that’s been successful in life. So I think if they look at his background, it’s what they want. They care about their families. They care about, you know, somebody that’s been successful in business. That’s what they care about. So I think that’s part of what his attraction to the Latino vote.”

Gingrich’s campaign recently yanked a Spanish-language ad accusing Romney of being “anti-immigrant” after U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio blasted scolded the former speaker of the House over the ad.

And Romney scored one of his best lines on the thorny immigration issue during Thursday night’s debate in Jacksonville after Gingrich said Romney’s immigration stance would result in rounding up grandmothers who’ve lived for years in the country illegally.

“Our problem isn’t 11 million grandmothers,” Romney said. “Our problem is 11 million people getting jobs that many Americans, legal immigrants, would like to have.”

With recent polls showing Romney surging in the polls on Florida, Scott told Crowley “it sure looks like Gov. Romney’s going to win” and again said the candidates should be discussing their jobs plans instead of trading barbs.

Scott lauded Romney’s business background but did not say whose jobs plan he prefers.

“They all have plans,” he said.

With all eyes on Florida in the GOP presidential race, Senate President Mike Haridopolos might have been justified saying “I told you so” about the Sunshine State’s early Republican primary next week.

The legislature moved Florida’s primary date up from its originally scheduled date to Jan. 31 over the objections of state and national GOP leaders. Haridopolos and others wanted to elevate the state’s role in determining the eventual nominee.

With Newt Gingrich surging in the polls after unexpectedly trouncing Mitt Romney in South Carolina, Florida could be “the lynchpin to one person winning” the race, Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, said.

“Every once in a while it feels good to be right,” Haridopolos, a Romney backer, said this morning. “It was a risk, don’t get me wrong. But we thought it was a good risk. Clearly the eyes of the nation if not the eyes of the world are on this…I think it’s a good thing.”

And national coverage of the candidates stumping around sunny, mild-climed Florida may help solve some of the state’s budget problems as well, Haridopolos said.d

“This is like free advertising for our state and it wasn’t Visit Florida that had to pay the tab,” Haridopolos said.

Watching candidates “in their shirt sleeves” in sunny Florida may prompt Northerners to consider relocating their businesses to or visiting Florida, Haridopolos, a former New Yorker, said.

“So I think it’s been a jackpot,” Haridopolos said. “And I think we’re in the place where we deserve to be.”

Florida is the bellweather state in the general election and deserves to be so in the primaries, Haridopolos said, after the lesser-known candidates have been weeded out in Iowa and New Hampshire.

I love these kind of competitions – except when I’m in races. I like the ones where no one runs against me. It’s a lot more successful,” the former U.S. Senate candidate joked. “But to be serious. I think it’s good. I think this will elevate our candidate.”

Rick Perry’s departure from the GOP presidential race is almost certain to help Newt Gingrich in the Sunshine State’s upcoming primary as many of Perry’s conservative supporters – including the next Florida Senate president – defect to the former Speaker of the House.

But how much that matters depends on how well Gingrich, distrusted by many tea party activists, performs in South Carolina this weekend, Republican legislative leaders say.

Senate President-Designate Don Gaetz, a Perry backer, said he’s leaning towards Gingrich, not because the Texas governor has endorsed his former opponent, but because he, like many others, believes Gingrich would handily outshine President Obama in debates.

“I’ve respected Newt Gingrich for years,” said Gaetz, R-Niceville. Gaetz said he’s read Gingrich’s books and met with the historian on several occasions, “more than just casually.”

But, he said, “I’m happy with either Romney or Gingrich but I’m leaning toward Gingrich,” although “I can support Romney and support him with enthusiasm.”

Gingrich’s performance in South Carolina will influence how relevant Florida will be in determining the Republican candidate, some political insiders, including Gaetz, say.

The outcome of Florida’s winner-take-all-delegates primary could whittle the race down to contest between Romney and Gingrich or crown Romney as the all-but-inevitable nominee.

“It’s important for Florida to be relevant. So for parochial reasons, I hope that the contest goes on through the end of January at least because I want Florida to be important in selecting the Republican nominee,” Gaetz said. “So Gingrich would have to do well in South Carolina to keep hope alive among those who are unsatisfied with Romney.”

Perry dropping out of the race may have little impact on Florida voters, said Sen. John Thrasher, a former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida and Mitt Romney supporter.

“I don’t think it makes a lot of difference. I think Newt’s where he is. I think Gov. Romney’s where he is. Most people still believe Gov. Romney’s the best choice, particularly in Florida. He’s got an incredible organization. He’s got a lot of troops on the ground all over the state. I think he’s got the resources to really put forth his message by Jan. 31,” Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, said.

Perry made the right decision, Gaetz said.

“There comes a point when you look around and you realize that it’s hopeless. And I think that Gov. Perry has gotten to that point,” he said.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi will co-host the GOP presidential debate on Fox News this weekend, according to a press release distributed by the Republican Party of Florida this morning.

Bondi, a Fox fave who often appeared on the news channel as a legal analyst before her election in January and a frequent guest star since, will join fellow Republican attorneys general Ken Kuccinelli of Virginia and E. Scott Pruitt of Oklahoma on former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s show Saturday night at 8 p.m.

Bondi is leading the charge in the multi-state federal health care lawsuit, launched by her predecessor Bill McCollum, now before the U.S. Supreme Court. Undoing the health care law is among the GOP presidential wannabes’ top campaign pledges.

“This forum is an excellent opportunity to engage each of the candidates in a candid conversation about issues that are important to voters in our state and across the nation,” Bondi said in the press release. “This will be a historic election, and I am excited to play a part in helping voters gain a better understanding of candidates’ beliefs on fundamental issues such as constitutionalism and the role of government.”

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum have all agreed to participate in the forum, according to the release.

Democrats unleashed an attack ad – “Trapped” – targeting Mitt Romney in his bid to unseat President Barack Obama. The movie trailer-style TV ad portrays Romney’s political career as “the story of two men trapped in one body” and directs viewers to a longer, online ad entitled “Mitt v. Mitt”

The ads characterize the former Massachusetts governor “for what he truly is: a flip-flopper, a candidate without core beliefs, and someone who’s simply without conviction,” Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz told reporters on a conference call this morning.

“The American people appreciate that there are many different points of view in our diverse nation. That is something that people expect. They just don’t expect one candidate to espouse all of them,” Wasserman Schultz, a Congresswoman from Weston, said.

Democrats are feverishly portraying Romney, in Florida on fundraising sweep tonight and tomorrow, as inconsistent in an effort to peel off support from conservative GOP voters with six weeks until Republicans begin choosing their nominee. They’re targeting Romney although recent polls show Newt Gingrich at the top of the GOP pack.

The DNC ad, showing contradictory clips of Romney on health care and abortion, is running in Albuquerque, N.M., Raleigh, N.C., Columbus, Ohio, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee and Washington.

“From the creator of `I’m running for office for Pete’s sake,’ comes the story of two men trapped in one body,” the ad says.

The four-minute video, entitled “Mitt versus Mitt,” also includes clips of Romney reversing his positions on issues.

A new poll for the business lobby Associated Industries of Florida shows President Obama deadlocked with former Republican Mitt Romney but holding a 5 percentage point lead in the Sunshine State over newly minted contender, Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

The survey, by McLaughlin & Associates, was conducted Aug. 8-9, with 600 likely general election voters questioned in Florida. It has a margin-of-error of plus-or-minus 4 percent.

Ryan Tyson, AIF’s vice-president of political operations, pointed out that the poll showed 44 percent of Floridians are willing to re-elect Obama. But, Tyson said, that level of support represents “a bad sign for the president.”

The poll included a narrower survey of  223 likely Republican primary voters about their preference for a nominee. Romney topped Perry by 27 percent to 16 percent, with Minnesota U.S. Rep. Michelle Bachman third, with 10 percent support.

Twenty-two percent of Republican primary voters were unsure of a favorite, the poll showed. Jon Huntsman, the former Utah governor who is running his national campaign out of his wife’s ex-hometown, Orlando, doesn’t appear to be getting any in-state bump – drawing support from a mere 3 percent of Floridians surveyed.

Home cooking can help, though. Thirty-three percent of those responding said they were more likely to support a Republican for president, if Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio was on the ticket as a vice-presidential candidate.

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman and South Florida U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz pounced on Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney‘s remark to some out-of-work Floridians this morning that he’s “also unemployed.”

Romney “chuckled” about his employment status while visiting a Tampa coffee shop and chatting with unemployed people about the economy, The New York Times reported, adding that “The eight people gathered around him, who had just finished talking about strategies of finding employment in a slow-to-recover economy, joined him in laughter.”

Wasserman Schultz was not amused.

Read her comments after the jump…

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U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, is endorsing Mitt Romney in the crowded 2012 GOP presidential primary, the Romney camp announced tonight while the former Massachusetts governor is making a campaign swing through Florida.

Romney headlined a 2008 fund-raiser for Rooney‘s first congressional race and publicly supported Rooney’s slam-dunk reelection bid during a Florida endorsement spree last year.

Romney is on a three-day Florida fund-raising tour that featured a visit to developer and former ambassador to the Bahamas Ned Siegel‘s house in Boca Raton on Tuesday. In addition to the Rooney endorsement, Romney on Thursday is expected highlight previously announced endorsements from U.S. Reps. Connie Mack, R-Cape Coral, and Ander Crenshaw, R-Jacksonville, and from state Sen. John Thrasher, R-Jacksonville.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who visits Florida Tuesday and Wednesday for a series of fund-raisers, released a video today taking a shot at President Obama‘s recent remark that “there are always bumps on the road to recovery.”

Obama made the statement the same day new unemployment statistics showed the nation’s jobless rate had ticked upward from 9 percent in April to 9.1 percent in May.

Obama is in North Carolina today to talk about jobs and the economy before heading to Miami for three fund-raisers this evening.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney defended the “bumps” remark while talking to reporters aboard Air Force One today.

Read the transcript after the jump…

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Republican Presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney, who will visit Florida next week for a series of private fund-raising events, will not participate in the state GOP’s “Presidency 5″ straw poll in September but is expected to appear in the event’s nationally televised debate from Orlando.

Republican Party of Florida Executive Director Andy Palmer called Romney’s decision “unfortunate.”

Romney will also skip the much-watched Ames straw poll in Iowa this summer.

“Our campaign has made the decision to not participate in any straw polls, whether it’s in Florida, Iowa, Michigan or someplace else,” Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades said. “We respect the straw poll process. In the last presidential campaign we were both strengthened as an organization and learned some important lessons by participating in them. This time we will focus our energies and resources on winning primaries and caucuses. We look forward to bringing Mitt Romney’s strong pro-jobs message to every part of the country.”

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With former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty making a beeline to Florida for a Tampa fund-raiser on the heels of making his presidential candidacy official Monday, Florida’s own former Republican Gov. Jeb Bush, was — again — quick to rule out his own potential run.

“While, I am flattered by everyone’s encouragement, my decision has not changed. I will not be a candidate for president in 2012,” Bush said in a statement.

With the GOP White House field seen as unsatisfying to many party faithful, Florida Republicans are among those who see Bush as having the supernova quality needed to reroute President Obama’s trajectory toward re-election next year.

Having the Republican National Convention in Tampa only adds to the wish-upon-a-star dreams of some within the party. A poll of Florida voters last month by state Republican operatives, Public Concepts, LLC, and Data Targeting, Inc., even gave Bush a 19 percentage point lead over Obama in the nation’s biggest toss-up state.

Bush, who’s gained increased attention as many of the education initiatives he debuted in Florida gain traction in other states — and even with the Obama administration –is clearly wary. And, perhaps, with good reason.

A Gallup poll in April showed Bush’s unfavorable rating among nationwide voters is 44 percent, compared with 35 percent who have a positive view of the former chief executive. Fox News in February also found Bush trailed Obama by 20 percentage points, on a list of potential GOP contenders.

Far closer for Fox, then, was a candidate who actually is running — former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who only trailed Obama by 7 percentage points at the time.

PALM BEACH — Former New York Mayor and 2008 Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani left the door open for a 2012 run tonight, saying he’d think about launching another White House bid if it looks the GOP might otherwise pick a nominee who is “too right-wing.”

Giuliani backed away from his previous suggestion that he’d be more likely to run if Sarah Palin got in the race. He said another potential 2012 GOP candidate, Mitt Romney, should declare the health care plan he championed as governor of Massachusetts was a mistake.

Giuliani spoke for about 90 minutes to a Palm Beach Republican Club crowd of about 200 at The Colony hotel.

During a Q-and-A session, he was asked about his January comments on CNN that he’d be tempted to run if Palin were a candidate. Giuliani called that remark “rash.” But he said his fears of the GOP choosing a nominee who can’t win a general election might prompt him to run.

“If all we are faced with are candidates that are too far right so that they can’t win the general election, then that’s when I’d reconsider doing it,” Giuliani said.

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Sally Bradshaw, a sought-after GOP Florida operative since her days as campaign manager and chief of staff for former Gov. Jeb Bush, has signed up to work for Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour’s PAC as Barbour explores a 2012 presidential run.

Bradshaw advised former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s Florida campaign in 2008. Romney is arguably the best known potential 2012 GOP candidate in a wide-open field.

“I have a great deal of respect for Gov. and Mrs. Romney, but I think Haley is a better fit for me,” said Bradshaw, whose ties to Barbour go back to the 1980s, when she worked for him as a college intern when Barbour was political director in the Reagan White House.

“Haley is a straight shooter and he’s not afraid to be bold,” Bradshaw said.

Gov. Rick Scott was scheduled to meet for half an hour this morning with ormer Massachusetts governor – and almost certain 2012 presidential candidate – Mitt Romney.

But the meeting between GOP governors past and present never took place because, Scott’s staff said, of the weather.

As anyone familiar with springtime in Florida’s hilly capital city, fog frequently makes flying in and out in the morning a crapshoot.

Scott’s a premium stop on the GOP presidential wannabes’ Sunshine State rounds.

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty met with fellow tea party fave Scott last month.

Four potential 2012 GOP presidential candidates — Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney — will be in Manalapan for the conservative Club For Growth’s private annual winter meeting Thursday through Saturday at the Ritz-Carlton.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., who recently ruled out a 2012 run, and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and more than a dozen other congressional Republicans will also be on hand.

The event is closed to the media.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will join GOP governor hopeful Rick Scott on a campaign stop in the Villages tomorrow.

Romney, who lost a presidential bid in the GOP primary two years ago, and Scott, who defeated Attorney General Bill McCollum in a brutal primary last month, will attend a rally and a meet-and-greet in the afternoon. Scott beat McCollum by about two percentage points in Lake County, where the Villages is located.

Romney is purportedly gathering steam for another presidential run in 2012.

The two businessmen have at least one thing in common. Romney spent about $45 million of his own money on his losing presidential campaign; Scott spent slightly more – $50 million – of his own fortune on his winning bid.

Mitt Romney will headline a Coral Gables fund-raiser for Attorney General and Republican governor candidate Bill McCollum tonight. McCollum, state chairman for Romney rival Rudy Giuliani during the 2008 presidential race, finds himself trailing his GOP primary race against millionaire Rick Scott.

Romney’s also endorsing 13 other Republican candidates around the state and his Free and Strong America PAC is contributing $5,000 to the Republican Party of Florida.

U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, and Senate President and Chief Financial Officer candidate Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, are among the candidates getting Romney endorsements.

Romney will also be in Jacksonville Tuesday to raise money for state Sen. and state GOP Chairman John Thrasher.

Romney says he’ll decide after the 2010 elections whether he’s running for president in 2012. If he makes a White House bid, he’ll want to have Republican friends in Florida.

Mitt Romney will stump with Marco Rubio in Tampa on Monday, Rubio’s U.S. Senate campaign announced today.

Former Florida House Speaker Rubio is likely trying to capitalize on GOP outrage over his primary opponent Gov. Charlie Crist’s veto of SB 6, the contentious teacher merit pay bill.

A recent poll showed Romney an early GOP presidential favorite in Florida in the 2012 election.

Rubio’s garnered the endorsements of both Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, whom Rubio threw his support behind in the 2008 presidential campaign.

Romney’s Free and Strong America PAC is also giving the maximum $5,000 contribution to Rubio, according to his campaign.