Love this story. Just love this story.

Soon-to-be-former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford first came up missing, then his staff explained that he was hiking alone on the Appalachian Trail, then earlier today came word she was cruising off the coast of Argentina. Now, the truth.

Yes, it’s another woman.

From CNN:

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford admitted Wednesday, amid speculation over his whereabouts for the last several days, that he has been engaged in an extramarital affair with an Argentinian woman.

“I’ve been unfaithful to my wife,” Sanford told a news conference in Columbia, the state capital. “I developed a relationship with what started as a dear, dear friend from Argentina.”

His voice choking at times, Sanford apologized to his wife and four sons, his staff and supporters, and said he would resign immediately as head of the Republican Governors Association. The affair was discovered five months ago, Sanford said.

Watch the video of his admission from a live news conference after the jump:

From her story:

The agency has filed a claim with Hughes’ family trust seeking more than $69 million in unpaid income and business taxes and interest for the years 2003 to 2007.

Hughes’ beneficiaries – his widow and two of his three children – are contesting the IRS claim, arguing Hughes paid millions in taxes.

After Hughes died at age 77 on June 27, 2008, Hillsborough County commissioners voted to rename the county’s Moral Courage Award for him. The decision was controversial, with detractors accusing commissioners of repaying their benefactor and injecting politics into what was supposed to be a nonpartisan award.

A curious piece of political literature has been hitting South Tampa homes over the past few days as a handful of County Commissioner Ken Hagan’s supporters do what is called a “lit drop” of campaign literature.

Only it is not really campaign literature, or at least, it doesn’t carry the necessary campaign disclosures that a campaign advertisement would carry. Nor is it a county government piece, as it points out that it was “Not produced at taxpayer’s expense.”

That left some Democrats e-mailing me furiously about how this was akin to the stealth campaign that Buddy Johnson ran with federal dollars in 2008, the one being probed by the Feds and the St. Pete TImes’ Jeff Testerman. And it caught the attention of at least one Democrat who has been thinking about running against the Republican Hagan in 2010.

“It was on my doorknob,” said Mary Mulhern, a Tampa City Council member who is considering the Hagan race, or the mayor’s race in 2011, or re-election to her own seat on the Council.

And getting Mulhern’s attention — or at least the attention of South Tampa Democrats who have been talking up a challenge to the north Tampa commissioner — may have been Hagan’s ulterior motive.

“Oh, I never thought of that, i just thought it was a non-campaign campaign piece,” said Mulhern. “I was curious that the north hillsborough county commissioner was actually checking in with constituents who are not his constituents in South Tampa. I don’t think it’s intimidation; he’s got to get some name recognition down here.”

I couldn’t reach Hagan late Friday after getting the non-campaign piece. But it is an old campaign trick and an advantage of incumbency; under the cover of a “constituent survey” you get your name out in neighborhoods that frankly may not know you exist. Hagan’s current district covers New Tampa and other northern parts of Hillsborough County, nowhere near South Tampa. In 2010, however, he wants to jump to a countywide seat to beat term limits in his existing seat.

Since Hagan apparently used personal funds, nobody is saying what he is doing is illegal.

“I doubt that he would have done it if it isn’t legal,” Mulhern said. “If it is a campaign piece you have to say who paid for it. I think it is iffy, but I haven’t looked into whether it would be legal or not. It certainly does have that look of what Buddy Johnson was doing. I think he’s got some vulnerability if he thinks he’s got to start sending out campaign literature so soon.”

Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles on Wednesday indicted a Jordanian businessman with connections to the Florida Republican Party on charges of funneling illegal contributions to three former presidential candidates and Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida.

The indictment of the businessman, Ala’a al-Ali, 37, shines a spotlight on the role of a business associate who the complaint asserts helped collect the donations. The associate, Harry Sargeant III, is a major Republican fund-raiser who owns an oil company with government contracts in Iraq and who recently resigned as finance chairman of the Florida Republican Party. Mr. Sargeant raised more than $500,000 for the 2008 Republican presidential campaign of Senator John McCain.

News organizations raised questions last summer about suspect donations to Mr. McCain from Arab-Americans that the campaign initially linked to Mr. Sargeant’s fund-raising before attributing them instead to another one of his Arab associates.

The DCCC announced a new robocall, e-mail and text message camnpaign aimed at hurting 12 Republicans who were prominent in voting against the Obama stimulus plan.

DailyKos says:

Here’s an example of the automated calls that will be running:

Hello, I’m calling on behalf of House Democrats with an important message about the economy.

Did you know Congressman Thad McCotter voted against President Obama’s economic recovery plan, endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce? McCotter’s empty rhetoric can’t hide that he voted to raise the AMT tax on 22 million middle class Americans and against the largest tax cut in history.

Call McCotter at 734-632-0314 to ask why he voted to raise taxes on middle class families.

Check out Recovery For America to learn more.

On the list of the dirty dozen is Putnam, who has already announced he is leaving his congressional office to run for the state’s Commissioner of Agriculture.

Now, of course the DCCC knows that Putnam is going bye-bye; it is already trying to field good candidates to run for that seat. But still, running the robocalls in either an attempt to sway his votes over the next year and a half or as punishment for his future political ambitions seems to waste precious campaign dollars.

I had been hearing buzz about this strategy for some time, so I raised the idea in January. Hagan late Friday followed through on his plans and filed for Norman’s seat. (h/t’s to Mariella Smith and Jim Johnson.)

Hagan's 2010 website greets visitors with this tease

Hagan has apparently been planning this switcheroo for some months. His campaign registered the domain kenhagan2010.com back in November 2008, with his 2008 campaign website designer listed as the admin contact:

Registrant:
Ken Hagan Campaign
PO Box 273168
Tampa, FL 33688
US
813-877-5381

Domain Name: KENHAGAN2010.COM

Record last updated 11-25-2008 10:11:16 AM
Record expires on 11-25-2009
Record created on 11-25-2008

Don Kruse, who ran unsuccessfully against Brian Blair last year, has also filed to run in the Republican primary.

Voters support 71 – 26 percent raising the cigarette tax an additional $1 a pack, the independent Quinnipiac (KIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds.

The survey also finds that Floridians oppose 55 – 39 percent a state law that prohibits homosexuals from adopting children. Republicans support the law 52 – 43 percent, as do White Evangelical Christians 58 – 37 percent. Democrats oppose the law 61 – 32 percent, along with independent voters 60 – 34 percent.

House leadership, including embattled Speaker Ray Sansom, took the cigarette tax hike off the table before the special session earlier this month even started. The Legislature has also long opposed allowing gay couples to adopt children, even as some gays serve as foster parents.

Why does it take a pollster to speak more sensibly about tax policy than the GOP leadership?

Smokers are the only group opposed to the possible cigarette tax hike, 64 – 34 percent. There is little difference among Republicans, Democrats and independents on the question. When voters are then asked the same question and told the money would go for public health programs, support rises slightly to 77 – 21 percent.

Looking at the possible effects of a cigarette tax hike, Florida voters say:

* 65 percent that it would be “very effective” or “somewhat effective” in discouraging young people from smoking;
* 50 percent that it would be “very effective” or “somewhat effective” in reducing smoking among current smokers;
* 58 percent that it would be “very effective” or “somewhat effective” in reducing state costs for medical care.

And 49 percent of smokers say they would cut down or quit if taxes are raised.

“Voters generally are opposed to raising taxes, even in order to balance the budget, but they seem to make an exception for cigarette taxes,” said Brown. “Given the public support, even normally anti-tax lawmakers might see this as a politically acceptable notion to the voting public.

“Interestingly, the public is split on whether raising cigarette taxes will lead to fewer people smoking, although they think it would be effective in reducing smoking among young people,” Brown said. “They do think, however, it might reduce the state’s medical costs. Voters don’t see hiking cigarette taxes as unfair to smokers; they seem to view it as a user fee.”

Download the poll in MS Word format.

(Photo credit: Florida House of Representatives/Meredith Hill)

So you would think that in a GOP-dominated county like Pinellas, Brickfield wouldn’t have a worry.

You’d be wrong.

Brickfield said he is running hard to the end, something you will hear from every good candidate, but he was genuinely not taking the race for granted because of the incredible wave against Republicans that seems to be hitting the state of Florida. He said he had been down campaigning at the St. Petersburg early voting site, where votes were going 10-1 against him. Barack Obama’s strategy of getting (especially African-American) voters to the polls for early voting has flooded the locations already. He then spent part of the day at the Largo early voting site and reported a much stronger pro-Republican turnout there, something to be expected in that part of the county.

With John McCain atop the ticket running double-digits behind Obama, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released today, it is starting to look like the bad news for Republicans is trickling down the ballot. Late yesterday, Congressional Quarterly moved two targeted Republican congressional seats in Central Florida in and around Orlando from the undecided column to “leans Democratic.” It wrote in the race for the seat held by Ric Keller:

• Florida’s 8th District (New Rating: Leans Democrat. Previous Rating: No Clear Favorite)

In his past races, Keller had been able to count on a consistent, though diminishing, Republican voter registration advantage in his central Florida district, which includes part of Orlando. But there have been demographic changes to the district, including a growing number of Hispanic residents, and the GOP registration lead is no more. Closing figures for voter registration in Florida were released Sunday and indicate that Democrats officially hold a registration edge in the 8th, 39 to 37 percent.

That spells major trouble for the four-term Republican incumbent, according to political scientist Aubrey Jewett of the University of Central Florida.

After winning easily in his 2002 and 2004 contests, Keller had to campaign hard to achieve a 7-point victory in 2006 over a Democratic challenger, Charlie Stuart. And this year’s Democratic candidate, lawyer Alan Grayson, is much better-funded that was Stuart, having poured millions in personal funds into his campaign. A chunk of his money has gone into a battery of TV ads. “It’s certainly starting to look like Grayson might win this thing,” Jewett said.

Keller just narrowly won his Aug. 26 Republican primary over a conservative political newcomer, lawyer Todd Long, which was widely seen as a sign of increased vulnerability.

Democrats think this is one place where Obama’s coattails could help produce a House upset for the Democratic candidate. Obama visited Orlando this week and is believed to be contributing to the increased Democratic registration in the district.

And in the bitterly fought race against incumbent Tom Feeney, CQ found:

• Florida’s 24th District (New Rating: Leans Democratic. Previous Rating: No Clear Favorite)

Democrat Suzanne Kosmas, a former state representative who once appeared a long-shot challenger to Republican Feeney, now appears to hold an edge in their race in Florida’s 24th District — a swath of the east-central part of the state which includes Orlando suburbs and part of the Space Coast.

This might have seemed a highly unlikely scenario as recently as 2004, when Bush was taking 56 percent in the 24th — and Feeney, who helped design the district in his previous role as state House Speaker, was running unopposed for re-election.

But that was before the name of Jack Abramoff, the convicted Washington influence peddler, became part of the political conversation in the district. Feeney was one of several House members who took golfing trips to Scotland that they later learned were financed by Abramoff.

After long stating that he had done nothing unethical and paying reimbursement for the trip, Feeney was unable to tamp down criticisms by Kosmas and other Democrats. So he took the unusual step of apologizing to his constituents in a paid ad this summer, labeling the trip a “rookie mistake.” Yet the Orlando Sentinel’s editorial board noted the Abramoff flap in its recent endorsement of Kosmas.

“It was always almost on the front burner and it was easy to move it to the front burner,” Susan MacManus, political scientist at the University of South Florida, said of the Abramoff connection.

Republicans also now hold just a 3 percentage-point voter registration edge in the district. “I think it leans Democrat for the Feeney race,” MacManus said.

The mounting fear may have been behind Gov. Charlie Crist (continuing to slowly emerge from his post-”I-got-my-ass-whupped-by-Sarah-Palin-for-veep” isolation) yesterday headlining a conference call with reporters reiterating that John’s His Man. “It’s Florida, Florida, Florida for sure,” he told reporters.

And finally, down in South Florida, where three Cuban Republican congressmen are under heavy mortar fire, the Democrat Annette Taddeo has released a campaign-financed poll that shows her closing to within a few points of incumbent Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Take that one with a grain of salt, but still, it shows the relative strength of down-ballot Democrats as they benefit from an anti-Palin backlash and lackluster performance by McCain.

Here’s a great idea. Too bad it’s illegal in Florida:

• “Guess what? I got a fever. And the only prescription is more cowbell.”
• Don’t the Rays remind you of … John McCain?!!?
• Per Joe Biden’s Seattle comment, a how-to on loin-girding.
• Is Matt Drudge off his game? (P.S. I’m calling for a boycott of Drudge Report. Who’s with me?)
• With Obama and the Dems on the verge of history, Newsweek reports America really is a conservative nation (no matter how we vote).
• Would it be horribly racist and stereotypical to say that this will most certainly lead to the first 7-Eleven on the moon?
• Who’da thunk that red dresses cost so damned much?
• St. Pete keeping its anti-protest plans secret. Lemme guess: a carton of box-cutters?
• Not only is Crooked Lawyer going to prison for a decade, he’s got a huuuuge friggin’ mole to contend with.
• They’re pretty stoked out in Lakeland to be getting a Five Guys.
• CQ now predicts that two Orlando area Republican congressmen, Keller and Feeney, are headed to defeat.
• The man who had his ass whupped by Sarah Palin in the veepstakes re-emerges with words of support for John McCain.
• GOP ad tries to tie Obama to 9-11 QB Atta.
• Amendment 2 opponents cry fraud against pro-vote advertisement.
• “Tampa, City of Hooters …”

“I don’t see how the inherent dangers of space flight could hurt this business.”

• I’ll take my refund in $10s and $20s, please.
• Today’s campaign update from Yahoo News — and what’s Obama doing in that photo, anyway?
• Hey Republicans, you want a piece of this?
• The real reason the U.S. is going broke.
• You’ve just found the dead body of a movie star. Who do you call? 9-1-1? His family? If you picked Mary-Kate Olsen, congrats! You must be Heath Ledger’s masseuse.
• Step right up for a chance to be one of the first people killed in a horrible space tourism accident.
• The cutting edge of offensiveness: The Three Little Pigs.
• I know what you’re thinking: Thank God golf is back!