Gov. Rick Scott heads to Spain this week on his fifth foreign-trade mission to help boost his jobs agenda.

But his five-day trip — seeking to attract more Spanish investment in Florida as well as highlight next year’s 500th anniversary celebration of the Spanish presence in the state — will take place in a country with its own economic turmoil and employment problems.

Over the weekend, tens of thousands of Spaniards demonstrated against the austerity measures imposed by the government seeking to curb a budget deficit and mitigate a nearly 25 percent unemployment rate.

Scott, a proponent of government austerity plans, may find an ally in Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who is pushing for billions of euros in budget cuts to help his country’s economy.

Among its measures, the Spanish government is pushing reforms to cut back on severance pay and restrict inflation-linked salary raises. But the moves have angered the unions, which are leading some of the protests.

In Florida, Scott, who campaigned on the slogan “Let’s Get to Work,” has backed corporate tax cuts, eliminated thousands of government jobs and forced workers to contribute to their public pensions. Those moves have also angered unions.

Scott’s critics say the austerity programs are unpopular in Florida and Spain for a good reason.

“We can already see that only do these things don’t work from a policy standpoint, they don’t even work from a political standpoint,” said Damien Filer of Progress Florida, a liberal advocacy group.

Filer noted Scott had to retreat on his unpopular plan in his first year to cut education funding by backing an increase this year.

He also said the budget cuts in Florida and Spain tend to hit middle-class families more than the corporations, which Scott will be wooing in Spain.

“That doesn’t feel right to most of the millions of people who live in this state,” Filer said. “I certainly think there is a universal disconnect there.”

Scott has contended that his efforts to cut the size and scope of government are working, as the unemployment rate dropped to 9 percent last month.

According to a summary from Scott’s office, the governor will lead a delegation of 60 Florida business leaders to Madrid beginning Sunday.

In a series of meetings with Spanish government officials and business leaders, Scott will promote Florida “as the ideal location for Spanish companies seeking to do business.”

Spain is currently Florida’s 34th-largest trading partner.

“With well over 300 Spanish companies operating in Florida, Spain has been one of the fastest-growing foreign investors in Florida in recent years, making our state home to one of the largest clusters of Spanish companies in the world,” a memo said.

However, some of those potential investments could be complicated by a new law Scott signed a few weeks ago that prohibits companies that have business ties with Cuba from getting government contracts in Florida.

Both Brazil and Canada, two of Florida’s largest trading partners, had raised objections to the bill, although Scott signed it into law.

In addition the business recruitment, Scott will use the Spain mission to promote and potentially attract more tourists next year for the state’s celebration of Juan Ponce de Leon’s first encounter with Florida in 1513.

Since taking office in January 2011, Scott has led delegations to Panama, Brazil, Canada and Israel.

More trips are planned this year. He is expected to visit the United Kingdom in July, timing the trip with the Farnborough International Air Show. He will lead a trade delegation to Colombia in December.

Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, who has previously led trade missions to Europe and South Africa, will also be traveling, with a mission scheduled for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in August.

New coastal homeowners seeking coverage from the state-backed insurance pool would see premiums double in some regions under a scenario to be reviewed Thursday by a key regulatory committee.

Members of Citizens Property Insurance Corp’s actuarial and underwriting committee will review a proposal that would raise premiums for new Citizens customers by nearly 30 percent statewide in an effort to depopulate the state-backed property insurer that now handles nearly 1.4 million policies.

Coastal homeowners who seek Citizens coverage after Jan. 1 would see premiums averaging 41.7 percent higher than those imposed on similar properties in 2010. The rates would add roughly $100 million in new premiums.

No vote will be taken Thursday, but the committee was asked to review the proposal that would allow Citizens to exceed a 10-percent cap on premium increases now in effect. Citizens’ legal advisors say the 10-percent cap on premium increases does not apply to new policies, an opinion not shared by others, including state Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater.

The actuary committee has already recommended non-capped rates for new policies, but the board postponed action on the proposal last month after an outcry from critics led by Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey.

Board members asked Citizens’ staff to examine what rates could look like under an uncapped scenario. They asked the insurer to meet with legislative leaders and look at the impact of making such a dramatic change. It could take up any new proposal at its June 7 meeting.

“The subcommittee has already recommended to the full board that they go forward with this uncapped rate issue,” said Christine Ashburn, Citizens director of legislative and external affairs, “…This is just staff providing the subcommittee an update of where we are working on those items.”

While the statewide increase would be about 30 percent, some areas would be hit much harder. New Citizens policyholders in Santa Rosa County, for example, would see an 82 percent increase under the scenario presented to the committee. New coastal customers in Escambia county would see premiums more than double at the end of 2010.

Citizens has been tasked with depopulating the state run pool, which has become the largest property insurer in the state. Toward that end, lawmakers and state officials have been trying to raise Citizens’ rates to make them more actuarially sound and more closely mirror what private insurers would charge.

“This is just another ridiculous idea from Tallahassee to shrink Citizens,” Fasano said “It’s ridiculous because people have nowhere else to go.”

At the full board meeting last month, Fasano argued that allowing such dramatic increases would hamper economic recovery along Florida’s coast, home to about 80 percent of the state’s population. Any rate hike approved by the Citizens’ board would have to be approved by state insurance regulators before going into effect.

“If the Office of Insurance Regulation were to approve these rates, it would be devastating to the housing market here in Florida,” Fasano said.

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But that proved to be no hinderance in Paul raising money in the Sarasota region and statewide in Florida.

Federal Election Commission records show of all the Republicans who ran for president this year, only Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich raised more money from Florida donors than Paul. The Texas Congressman raised $1.2 million from his supporters through March 31, FEC records show. Romney has so far raised $7.4 million. Gingrich raised about $1.6 million.

No other Republican candidate raised more than $800,000 from Florida.

And one of the best fundraising regions for Paul was Sarasota-Bradenton. Donors from zip codes in Sarasota and Bradenton gave about $87,100 to Paul’s campaign. That is nearly equal to all the donations Paul raised out of Miami-Dade, which is almost five times larger in population that Sarasota and Manatee combined.

Paul raised about $90,000 out of Miami-Dade. The Palm Beach County area was his biggest donor area, with $115,000 coming from donors there.

The bright green numbers popped out from a video screen behind Mitt Romney as he campaigned in Florida Wednesday with a renewed focus on an issue he hopes will sink President Barack Obama’s election chances: The national debt.

Romney’s retooled general election campaign is betting that a message of debt reduction and government spending cuts will have a strong appeal in Florida, tying together multiple economic themes and appealing to the state’s coveted independent and senior voters.

So the presumptive Republican presidential nominee brought along a vivid reminder of the debt during his first campaign rally in Florida since the January primary, a video display with the nation’s nearly $15.7 trillion debt lit up in 15 green digits.

“It’s high time that we have a president who will stop this spending and borrowing inferno and I will,” said Romney as a crowd of more than 300 supporters at the Mirror Lake Lyceum applauded and the debt clock ticked rapidly upward.

The message is a revised version of Romney’s Florida primary campaign, which focused more on issues like the foreclosure crisis and attacking his primary rival at the time, Newt Gingrich.

With all of his Republican opponents suspending active campaigning, Romney is free to focus entirely on Obama.

The candidates have both signaled that the fight over Florida — a critical swing state — will center on who can present the best plan for economic prosperity, but they are offering starkly different views.

Obama talked largely about trade and private sector job creation during a visit to the Port of Tampa last month, while also emphasizing issues of economic inequality and helping the middle class.

In a statement Wednesday, Obama campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith accused Romney of making “dishonest claims” about the president’s record on the national debt.

Noting that Obama was handed “the largest deficit relative to the economy since the end of World War II” when he took office, Smith added that Romney increased state spending in Massachusetts by 6.5 percent annually and expanded the state’s long-term debt by 16 percent during his four years as governor.

“While President Obama has put forward a plan to reduce the deficit by more than $4 trillion by making responsible spending cuts and asking every American to pay their share, Mitt Romney refuses to say what spending cuts or tax increases he’d make to cover the cost of giving $5 trillion in tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans,” Smith said.

Obama’s campaign has talked much more about economic equality, accusing Romney Wednesday of wanting “to return to the same policies that caused the economic crisis and weakened the middle class.”

Romney is trying to present the debt problem as a crisis that is holding back job creation for average workers.

“Taking a big slice out of this huge debt and getting us on track to have a balanced budget makes it more likely that large businesses will decide to locate here, that small businesses will start here,” he said Wednesday. “You have to take away this huge cloud if you want to get people to come back with businesses and create jobs again.”

Romney went after the president on everything from energy to military spending, health care reform and the sluggish economic recovery on Wednesday. He briefly touched on some of his primary themes, noting that Obama said “he’d measure progress by whether people can pay their mortgage.”

“We’ve had a record number of foreclosures and Florida, boy, there’s no place that’s been harder hit than Florida,” Romney said.

But his main focus was the debt, an issue the Romney campaign strategists believe has broad appeal. The candidate said that borrowing and “unfunded federal liabilities has reached more than $520,000 per household.

“We won’t pay it off — you guys will,” Romney said, singling out the younger people in a crowd of mostly senior citizens. “You’ll be paying the interest all your lives and they’ll have to raise taxes; they’re gonna have to dramatically raise taxes over time.”

“All the taxes you pay will make it virtually impossible for you to realize the American dream,” Romney added, saying new businesses will also be scared away because of the tax burden.

The renewed focus on government spending is part of strategy Romney began this week with an event in Iowa, where he compared federal spending to a “prairie fire.” He repeated that metaphor in Florida.

“At a stage like that you don’t say: ‘Well I’m gonna go to bed and maybe someone else will take care of it.’ You don’t say: ‘I’m going to go to bed because the wind might change.’ You instead look for someone who says: ‘I’m gonna take responsibility and fix this,’<TH>” he said.

Leaving the rally, Safety Harbor resident Ed Ghersi said he was struck by the debt figures.

“The numbers that he gave for each household on debt are something every person should think about between now and November,” said the 51-year-old machine technician.

But outside the event, Occupy St. Petersburg protester Curtis Hunt Jr. said Romney’s policies are geared to help the rich, not the middle class.

“A lot of people out here are upset,” said Hunt as he held a sign reading “America can’t afford Mr. 1% Romney.”

Romney has another rally planned in Jacksonville Thursday and several fundraising events across the state. The May events are early for a general election campaign, but Florida is a must-win for any Republican presidential candidate.

Top Romney strategist Stuart Stevens said Romney will visit Florida often before the Nov. 6 general election.

“Florida’s going to be about the economy,” Stevens said. “This election is about the economy and Florida will be ground zero for that discussion.”

Stevens said Romney will continue to emphasize the national debt because of its affect on other areas of the economy.

“All these issues are tied together,” he said. “Debt affects housing , it affects the economy, it affects interest rates, it affects everything.”

A government entity is the largest employer in 51 of the state’s 67 counties, and in every county in Florida government is at least one of the top five largest employers, Florida TaxWatch reported in a study out Tuesday.

The study – which comes as Gov. Rick Scott has repeatedly argued that the state’s economic future depends on the health of private sector jobs, not government employment – also said that on average, nearly 4 out of 10 of the largest employers in any county around the state are a government entity.

In looking at the top 10 employers in the state’s 67 counties, TaxWatch did find that more of them – 425 of the 670 – were private companies or organizations, to just 245 that were federal, state, county or local government agencies. But the tops of those top 10 lists were dominated by government, with school systems being most notable, as they long have been in nearly every state, as the biggest job generators in local communities.

District school boards are either the number 1 or number 2 largest employer in 61 Florida counties.

“While this analysis does not consider the total size of government employment compared to total private employment, it is certainly clear that the government has a massive direct effect on local economies throughout the state through employment and payroll practices, in addition to the indirect effects that government actions, such as regulation, have on the economy,” TaxWatch said in the report. “Moreover, for many counties the potential closure of a military base or correctional facility, or large layoffs due to federal, state, or local budget shortfalls, poses a significant economic threat.

“Putting aside the roles public entities are assigned to fulfill, it is important that Floridians understand that for many of the largest employers in their county, their payrolls are paid by tax dollars,” the non-partisan Tallahassee-based group concluded.

The county most dependent on large government employers is Bay, which includes Panama City, thanks largely to the military. Seven out of the top ten employers in Bay County are government entities, led by Tyndall Air Force Base and the Naval Surface Warfare Center.

The military, while providing a large number of jobs in some counties, is actually in the top 10 of employers in only seven counties. The armed forces are the largest employer in Duval, Monroe, and Okaloosa, in addition to Bay.

Obviously, Leon County’s two largest employers – state government itself and Florida State University – are government entities. The Leon County schools are the third largest, and the city of Tallahassee, the county itself and Florida A&M University are also in the top 10 for the county.

State government agencies are in the top 10 in 15 other counties. The state Department of Corrections is the largest employer in Gulf and Holmes counties, and one of the top employers in several rural counties with large prisons, or in some cases more than one prison.

Northeast Florida State Hospital is the largest employer in Baker County and Florida State Hospital is the largest in Gadsden.

At the other end of the spectrum are counties where just one of the top ten employers is a government agency: Calhoun, Glades, and Levy counties. The school board is the largest employer in each county, but all other significant employers are private.

Looks like President Barack Obama’s allies got the hint.

An independent group with deep ties to the president’s re-election campaign launched a new television ad Tuesday hitting Mitt Romney’s business practices at Bain Capital, just 24 hours after Obama’s team debuted its own ad attacking the Republican presidential candidate’s work at the private equity firm.

The back-to-back spots, to run in four of the same five general election swing states, are a sign of the new world of campaign finance, where so-called super political action committees have wide leeway to spend as much as they want to help or hurt candidates. And the ads also cast new light on the cozy relationship between campaigns and these groups, raising questions about how independent they are from each other.

The coziness isn’t limited to Democrats. A Romney-aligned super PAC is keeping him competitive on TV as he regroups for the general election. And the relationship between that group — Restore Our Future — and the presumptive GOP nominee was on vivid display during the Republican primaries, when the group spent $36 million on ads assailing the former Massachusetts governor’s rivals.

Super PACs, born of a 2010 Supreme Court decision easing political spending rules, can raise and spend unlimited donations as long as they don’t coordinate directly with the campaigns they support. But the lines are often blurry: The pro-Obama super PAC Priorities USA Action is run by former Obama White House aides, while Restore Our Future is staffed by former Romney advisers.

Strategists for the super PACs insist they are operating independently and are not relying on signals from the presidential campaigns as to what advertising strategy to pursue. But campaign finance watchdogs are crying foul, arguing that super PACs have effectively become high-dollar shadow campaign operations for candidates otherwise constrained by much stricter federal campaign finance rules.

“Candidate-specific super PACs are simply arms of the presidential campaigns and need to be treated as such and be subject to contribution limits,” said Fred Wertheimer of Democracy 21, a campaign finance reform advocacy group.

“The idea that these groups are independent is a fiction in reality terms and, we believe, a fiction in legal terms.”

Republicans have generally welcomed the emergence of super PACs, and several GOP-leaning groups spent millions to take control of the House and pick up six Senate seats in 2010. Obama sharply criticized the emergence of super PACs that year but ultimately green-lighted contributions to Priorities USA Action after it became clear that his campaign and other Democrats would be vastly outgunned otherwise.

Tuesday’s new ad launched by Priorities USA Action highlights the failure of GST Steel, a Kansas City, Mo.-based company purchased by Bain Capital that went bankrupt and laid off 750 workers in 2001. A day earlier, the Obama campaign announced it was targeting Bain’s management of GST Steel in a two-minute ad.

Priorities USA Action is spending $4 million to air the new ad, while the Obama campaign committed just under $100,000 to run its commercial. But Bill Burton, a former Obama White House aide who now heads Priorities USA Action, said the timing of the two ads was a coincidence and his group had not waited for the Obama campaign go after Bain before making a similar attack.

“It wasn’t a matter of waiting for anything, this was our strategy,” Burton said, adding that the ad had been shot in February and the group has several more it plans to air related to Bain.

“There are four or five examples that are particularly telling of how Mitt Romney made decisions when he was in private business. We had planned on telling this story regardless,” Burton said.

Priorities USA Action’s might may be limited — the group has struggled to raise money, taking in about $10 million through its super PAC and affiliated nonprofit arm by the end of March. The group has spent $2.7 million on ads in May, compared to $28.6 million by the Obama campaign, according to data provided by ad buyers to The Associated Press.

Republican-leaning groups, by contrast, spent about $14 million on commercials in the same period. About $4.3 million was spent by Restore Our Future, which has raised at least $51 million since its inception to support Romney.

The Romney campaign has spent no money on TV ads since Romney’s Republican opponents dropped out, clearing his path to the nomination.

Obama’s campaign opened the month of April with more than $100 million in the bank, a 10-to-1 fundraising advantage over Romney. But the president’s edge is minimized by the campaign cash raised by Restore Our Future and other Republican-leaning super PACs, which have pledged to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to help Romney.

Carl Forti, who heads Restore Our Future and served as political director for Romney’s 2008 presidential bid, said the group does not need to coordinate with the Romney campaign to know how to make the best use of resources.

“We’re politically experienced people, we know what Obama’s vulnerabilities are and what we need to do to help Mitt win,” Forti said. “Just because we can anticipate what they need and where they are going, it doesn’t mean it’s coordinated.”

Forti also serves as a strategist for American Crossroads, a super PAC with ties to Karl Rove, President George W. Bush’s longtime political director. Crossroads has announced plans to spend as much as $300 million to influence the presidential contest.

While the Republican groups may not coordinate directly with the Romney campaign, they do coordinate with each other. Leaders of some leading Republican super PACs attend a monthly meeting hosted by Crossroads to share information and devise strategy.

Paul Ryan of the Campaign Legal Center, an advocacy group, said super PACs are operating under a fig leaf of independence that does not hold up under scrutiny.

“Super PACs have little or no true independence, that’s why large contributions to super PACs pose just as great a threat of corruption as they would if given directly to the candidates,” Ryan said. “To put it bluntly, there’s no real need for them to coordinate as the law defines it in order to run an incredibly effective ad campaign using unlimited, potentially corrupting contributions.”

 The new Priorities USA Action ad is running on TV in Colorado, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The Super PAC also began a website with its version of Romney’s record as CEO of Bain Capital. The Obama campaigns ad is to air in Iowa instead of Florida.

With an early legislative session speeding up action in the Capitol, at least three lobbying firms collected more than $1 million in fees during the first three months of the year, according to new reports.

The reports also show that an additional eight firms raked in between $500,000 and $999,999 for their work in the Legislature. Those totals could grow, as lobbyists faced an 11:59 p.m. deadline Tuesday for filing quarterly compensation reports.

The three firms that topped $1 million were Ballard Partners, Ronald L. Book PA and Southern Strategy Group. The reports don’t give the exact totals collected by the firms, but they detail some of the largest payments made by clients.

Ballard Partners, for example, collected $77,000 from Automated HealthCare Solutions Inc., a technology company that opposed bills aimed at limiting how much doctors can charge for dispensing drugs to workers-compensation insurance patients. The bills ultimately died.

Book, meanwhile, collected $50,000 or more from five clients, including $50,000 from Florida Power & Light and $50,000 from West Flagler Kennel Club, a pari-mutuel that was involved in a fierce debate about whether lawmakers should allow up to three resort casinos in the state. The casino proposals failed to pass the House or Senate.

With reports still being filed Tuesday, it is too early to compare lobbyist compensation during the first quarter with the same period in previous years. But a once-a-decade redistricting process caused the 2012 session to begin in January and end in March, squeezing it all into the year’s first quarter — unlike typical years when the session starts in March and ends in early May.

The reports list the clients represented by lobbying firms and give broad ranges of the total amounts of money that firms collect. The eight firms that reported receiving between $500,000 and $999,999 were Colodny, Fass, Talenfeld, Karlinsky & Abate: Dutko Worldwide; Johnson & Blanton; Foley & Lardner; Fowler White Boggs; Smith, Bryan & Myers; The Rubin Group; and Tsamoutales Strategies.

Among the biggest corporate spenders this year appears to be AT&T, which successfully backed a bill that made changes in the state’s communications-services tax. The reports show AT&T paid $50,000 or more to at least seven lobbying firms; paid between $40,000 and $49,999 to seven other firms; and paid $30,000 to $39,999 to five firms.

The reports only show exact dollar amounts for payments of $50,000 or more. Smaller amounts are shown in ranges.

Another large spender during the quarter appears to be a firm related to Genting, the Malaysian conglomerate that is seeking to build a Miami resort casino. Foley & Lardner and Western Hemisphere Strategies — which is run by former Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart — each reported receiving $75,000 in fees from the Genting-related firm, Bayfront 2011 Development LLC.

A wide range of other companies and organizations also shelled out large amounts of money for lobbyists. Among them: the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, which reportedly paid $150,000 to Ericks Consultants; the Harris Corp., which paid $139,000 to Tsamoutales Strategies; and U.S. Sugar Corp., which paid $90,000 to Fowler White Boggs.

The Sentinel requested water billing records from Lee County Utilities, and reported that “somebody has flushed toilets and taken showers — or done something to use water — at Connie Mack IV’s Fort Myers townhouse at least a few days a month for at least the last two years.”

Mack was billed for the minimum 1,000 gallons required to trigger a bill in 19 of the 28 months since the start of 2010, the Sentinel said.

“In six of those months, 2,000 gallons were used. In three — August 2010, and March and June 2011 — he was not billed for any usage. That suggests occupancy of a few days most months, typical of a congressman who flies back on weekends. His neighbors in the Tamarind Cay subdivision frequently use 3,000-8,000 gallons a month. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the average family of four uses 280 gallons of indoor water a day,” the article stated.

Mack represents District 14 in the U.S. House. LeMieux and other Mack critics have questioned how much time he spends in the district, as he is married to a congresswoman from California, where she has a home.  They also own homes in Virginia and Colorado.

Mack’s campaign said he lives in Fort Myers.

To view the Sentinel article, click here.

LeMieux’s campaign, which has likened Mack to Charlie Sheen, jabbed at Mack again over the residency issue, offering five possible reasons for his limited water use at the Fort Myers residence, including that he “only washes his hair with specialty water purchased in Palm Springs” and “prefers the bathroom facilities at Hooters” where he once worked.

President Obama and Mitt Romney agree on one thing about Medicare: the differences between them are huge. Each man says his opponent’s policies would end Medicare as it now exists, undermining the rock-solid guarantee of health care for older Americans.

Given the emphasis both parties are placing on health care as a defining political issue, their contrasting approaches to the government-run health insurance program serving 49 million people are certain to command considerable attention in both the presidential and Congressional campaigns.

President Obama illustrated the importance he is placing on Medicare when, in a slap at Mr. Romney, he vowed this month: “I will never allow Medicare to be turned into a voucher that would end the program as we know it. We’re not going to go back to the days when our citizens spent their golden years at the mercy of private insurance companies.”

Mr. Romney, who would limit the government’s current open-ended financial commitment to Medicare, contends that Mr. Obama has no workable plan to prevent Medicare from going bankrupt. Under the Romney proposal, the government would contribute a fixed amount of money on behalf of each beneficiary, and future beneficiaries could use the money to buy private insurance or to help pay for traditional Medicare.

Mr. Romney says he offers not just a policy change, but “a dramatic change in perspective and philosophy,” and he cites his Medicare proposal as evidence of his willingness to tackle the cost of popular entitlement programs.

The president’s 2010 health care law, Mr. Romney says, “could lead to the rationing or denial of care for seniors,” as it will squeeze nearly a half-trillion dollars from the growth of Medicare over 10 years while putting the program’s future “in the hands of 15 unelected bureaucrats.”

Obama administration officials say the 2010 law improved Medicare’s finances and extended the life of its hospital insurance trust fund. They say that the “bureaucrats” — on the Independent Payment Advisory Board — are a backstop to help control costs and cannot recommend rationing care, increasing premiums or cutting benefits.

Mr. Obama assails the Romney proposal for the same reason he denounced a similar plan devised by Representative Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin and chairman of the House Budget Committee: the government contribution, he says, would not keep up with the rising cost of health care, so Medicare beneficiaries — older Americans and people with disabilities — would have to pay more of the cost. Under the proposal, Mr. Obama says, the government would save money by shifting costs to beneficiaries.

Aides to Mr. Romney say his proposal is very similar to the latest version of Mr. Ryan’s plan, drafted with Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon. But, the aides say, the Ryan plan offers more specifics than Mr. Romney has provided to date.

The side that can win public opinion on Medicare is likely to find its political position strengthened in November; Medicare is extremely popular with older Americans, who turn out to vote in large numbers and have historically trusted Democrats more than Republicans on health care. But that trust has been undermined by continual Republican criticism of the 2010 health care law, which Republicans say cut Medicare to help offset the cost of covering the uninsured.

Mr. Obama also wants to slow the growth of Medicare spending. The 2010 law throttles back payments to health care providers, including hospitals, nursing homes and health maintenance organizations.

Under the law, Mr. Obama is testing new ways of delivering care, notably by encouraging doctors and hospitals to team up to coordinate care, to see if they save money and keep patients healthier. In his latest budget, Mr. Obama proposed $300 billion of further savings in Medicare, most of it from providers.

Of the 49 million Medicare beneficiaries, one-fourth already receive comprehensive care through H.M.O.s and other private plans run by companies like UnitedHealth, WellPoint and Humana. The number could rise significantly under Mr. Romney’s proposals.

Medicare actuaries and trustees say Medicare’s hospital insurance trust fund will be exhausted in 2024 under current law. And Medicare spending could surpass estimates based on current law. The law requires cutbacks in payments to providers that many experts see as unrealistic and unsustainable.

The idea espoused by Mr. Romney — known as premium support, because the government helps pay premiums — has been around for more than 15 years. Liberal Democrats tend to view it as a right-wing idea to privatize Medicare. But Medicare’s financial problems may ensure that “premium support” remains part of the political debate, whoever wins the election.

More moderate Democrats like former Senator John B. Breaux of Louisiana and Alice M. Rivlin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office, have endorsed the idea, with important qualifications.

The traditional fee-for-service Medicare program should be one of the options for beneficiaries, along with commercial insurance plans, they say.

Under Mr. Romney’s proposal, “traditional Medicare will compete against private plans.” How to ensure fair competition is a huge challenge, given the size of the traditional Medicare program and the government’s power to regulate private plans.

A summary of the proposal, provided by the Romney campaign, explains how it would work: “Traditional fee-for-service Medicare will be offered by the government as an insurance plan, meaning that seniors can purchase that form of coverage if they prefer it. However, if it costs the government more to provide that service than it costs private plans to offer their versions, then the premiums charged by the government will have to be higher, and seniors will have to pay the difference to enroll in the traditional Medicare option.”

This prospect alarms many Democrats. But Mr. Romney says, “Lower-income seniors will receive more generous support to ensure that they can afford coverage, and wealthier seniors will receive less support.”

Another crucial question is how the federal contribution to private plans would be calculated, updated and increased from year to year. If the government starts with the current level of Medicare spending and increases it to keep pace with the Consumer Price Index or the size of the economy, it would cover a smaller and smaller share of medical costs, which have historically grown faster than those benchmarks.

Under his proposal, Mr. Romney says, the government contribution would be based on competitive bidding. An insurer’s bid would reflect its estimate of the cost of providing a standard package of benefits to a typical beneficiary. Mr. Romney says tax increases are “off the table” as a way to deal with Medicare’s financial problems. He would gradually increase the eligibility age for Medicare, now 65, by one month a year. In the long run, he says, the eligibility age should rise with life expectancy.

The type of competition Mr. Romney wants to see in Medicare is strikingly similar to the competition that is supposed to drive down commercial insurance prices under Mr. Obama’s health care law. Under the law, people under 65 could choose among competing health plans offered through an insurance exchange in each state, and the government would subsidize premiums for lower- and middle-income people.

Ms. Rivlin pointed to a curious paradox: “Republicans object to exchanges in the Affordable Care Act and favor them in Medicare, while Democrats take the opposite, equally inconsistent, position.”

Here are four questions in the wake of the resignation of Gov. Rick Scott’s chief of staff Steve MacNamara, who will step down on July 1. He will be replaced by Adam Hollingsworth, a former chief of staff to a Jacksonville mayor and a key campaign adviser during Scott’s 2010 election.

1. Does this mean Scott is returning to his Tea Party roots, which spurred his run as an outsider lambasting the “dealmakers” of Tallahassee?

MacNamara’s résumé made him the ultimate Tallahassee insider. In fact, MacNamara’s departure was hastened by criticism that his past relationships were unduly influencing administration policy, particularly among the governor’s numerous agencies.

On the surface, the appointment of Hollingsworth, who was part of Scott’s anti-Tallahassee campaign, may signal an effort by Scott to re-center his administration.

But Scott, like all governors, is finding campaign promises are not always so easy to achieve. His record has been a mixed bag when it comes to curbing state government.

He amplified his Tea Party connection last year by killing the federal high-speed rail system for Florida. But at the same time, he approved the SunRail system for Central Florida, which may prove to be a costly venture.

Although he has won some tax cuts, Scott has not come close to repealing the state’s corporate income tax, which was another of his promises.

But as Scott heads into the last half of his term, he has plenty on his agenda that could leave no doubt about his willingness to take on Tallahassee. Among the issues is an effort to reform special taxing districts around the state as well as revamping the state university system to focus on more technology and engineering degrees.

He has maintained his focus on the state pension fund, arguing that it remains underfunded.

And with a pending U.S. Supreme Court ruling on health care as well as the state’s ambitious plan to revamp Medicaid, Scott, the former hospital company executive, could leave his mark in the health care arena.

2. Will MacNamara’s departure hurt Scott’s relationship with the Legislature?

As a former chief of staff in the House and Senate and as a former lobbyist, few can match MacNamara’s expertise with the sometimes arcane world of the Florida Legislature.

It certainly paid off for Scott during the 2012 session as the governor saw his legislative agenda — including a boost in education spending and a reform of the auto insurance laws — sail through the Legislature.

Legislative leaders cited the improved communication with the governor’s office during the session, in contrast to Scott’s first session when Scott and legislative leaders had difficulty meshing.

Some blamed it on Scott’s top aides, who had limited Tallahassee experience.

Hollingsworth doesn’t have MacNamara’s legislative experience. But Scott has been in office long enough to develop his own relationship with key leaders, including incoming Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, and incoming House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel.

3. Will Scott take a more contentious stand with the media?

MacNamara was credited with helping Scott, a former business executive who never served in public office before, develop a more productive relationship with the media.

Scott made the unprecedented decision to post his and his staff’s emails on the Internet in his “Sunburst” initiative. Scott began meeting with editorial boards around the state, after shunning them during his 2010 election campaign. He even invited reporters into his office for regular rounds of donuts and coffee.

There are no signs Scott plans to retreat from that policy shift. In fact on Monday, Scott visited two editorial boards in Southwest Florida.

4. How does MacNamara’s departure impact Scott’s re-election plans?

Scott has left no doubt that he plans to run for re-election in 2014.

His problem is low popularity ratings, although some surveys have shown recent improvement in recent months.

During MacNamara’s tenure, Scott has taken some significant steps to improve his image, including copying former Gov. Bob Graham’s “workday” initiative, periodically spending a day working among average Floridians.

Although jobs and the economy remain his top priority, Scott has made education a key theme. He frequently conducts his workdays in schools and signed the new state budget at an elementary school near Jacksonville.

Scott’s workdays and his advocacy for education will continue.

President Barack Obama crisscrossed Manhattan on Monday for a series of targeted appeals to a trio of key election-year constituencies: women, young people, and gay and lesbian supporters.

During a commencement address at Barnard College, a private women’s college, he urged the graduates to fight for their place at “the head of the table” and help lead a country still battered by economic woes toward brighter days.

Obama said “I believe that the women of this generation will help lead the way.”

Later Monday, Obama was to headline his first fundraiser specifically for gay and lesbian supporters since announcing his support for same-sex marriage last week. Democrats hope Obama’s politically risky embrace of gay marriage will re-energize supporters who had been frustrated by his previous assertions that his views on the hot-button social issue were “evolving.”

Women, young people and gay voters all made up crucial voting blocs for Obama in the 2008 election. And with the president locked in a close race with Republican rival Mitt Romney, his campaign is focused on rallying support among those groups once again.

The president’s choice of Barnard as his first commencement address of the spring underscored the intense focus both candidates have placed on women. An Associated Press-GfK poll conducted earlier this month showed Obama with a sizable advantage over Romney with women voters, 54 percent to 39 percent.

Obama acknowledged that today’s college graduates are entering a shaky job market. But to those who say overcoming the nation’s challenges isn’t possible, Obama said: “Don’t believe it.”

He told the graduates that if they ever despair, they should think of the country’s history and what young generations before them have achieved.

“Young folks who marched and mobilized and stood up and sat in from Seneca Falls to Selma to Stonewall they didn’t just do it for themselves, they did it for other people,” Obama said. “That’s how we achieved women’s rights, that’s how we achieved voting rights, that’s how we achieved workers’ rights, that’s how we achieved gay rights, that’s how we’ve made this union more perfect.”

After the speech, Obama taped an appearance on ABC’s “The View”, a daytime talk show hosted by five women. The interview was to air Tuesday.

Obama also was to speak to about 200 supporters at a fundraiser hosted by singer Ricky Martin and the LGBT Leadership Council. Ticket prices started at $5,000 per person.

The fundraiser followed Obama’s historic, yet politically risky, announcement last Wednesday that he personally believes gay couples should have the right to marry.

Obama had insisted for more than a year that his views on gay marriage were “evolving.” Even before his public announcement, many gay rights advocates believed he already had decided privately to support same-sex marriage, but was holding back on a public announcement for fear of losing support among socially conservative independent voters.

Senior administration officials said Obama had always planned to endorse publicly before his party’s nominating convention in September. But the White House’s search for a perfectly crafted opportunity to make the politically sensitive announcement was derailed May 6. That’s when Vice President Joe Biden said in a television interview that he was “absolutely comfortable” with gay married couples having the same rights as heterosexual couples.

Three days later Obama, in a hastily arranged interview, declared that it was time for him to “affirm” his belief that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry.

A new poll by the Pew Research Center found that about half of those surveyed say Obama’s support for same-sex marriage does not affect their opinion of the president, with about one-fourth saying they feel less favorably toward him and 19 percent feeling more favorably.

There was a big disparity between older and younger adults surveyed, indicating a more intensely negative reaction among older Americans. Forty-two percent of people over the age of 65 said they viewed the president less favorably because of his decision, while 62 percent of respondents between the ages of 18 and 29 said Obama’s announcement did not affect their opinion of him.

In an e-mail to supporters, Mr. Paul said he would no longer actively campaign in states that have not yet held Republican presidential primaries. To do so, he said, “would take many tens of millions of dollars we simply do not have.”

But Mr. Paul made no mention of Mitt Romney, and he did not say he would spend time helping defeat President Obama. Instead, he vowed to continue pursuing a “delegate strategy” that would provide his movement influence at the Republican National Convention in Tampa this summer.

“I hope all supporters of liberty will remain deeply involved — become delegates, win office and take leadership positions,” he wrote. “I will be right there with you. In the coming days, my campaign leadership will lay out to you our delegate strategy and what you can do to help, so please stay tuned.”

Mr. Paul’s campaign has been engineering minor coups at Republican party conventions in several states. His supporters have captured additional delegate spots and have ousted some supporters of Mr. Romney in key state party leadership posts.

In the letter to supporters, Mr. Paul said that the effort would continue because the presidential campaign had been “part of a quest I began 40 years ago.”

“Our campaign will continue to work in the state convention process,” he said in the e-mail. “We will continue to take leadership positions, win delegates and carry a strong message to the Republican National Convention that liberty is the way of the future.”

Steve MacNamara

Steve MacNamara said in his resignation letter that he would step down from his post July 1.

“It has been a pleasure and an honor serving you, but the recent media attention I have been receiving has begun to interfere with the day-to-day operations of this office,” MacNamara wrote. “I feel now is the time to plan for me to depart, for you to name my replacement and for us to work on a smooth transition.”

Scott announced that he was hiring Adam Hollingsworth, 43, to replace MacNamara. Hollingsworth currently leads the right-of-way division for Flagler Development Group and was once chief of staff for former Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton.

Hollingsworth worked on Scott’s transition team before he sworn in as governor.

MacNamara, who is also a professor at Florida State University, was hired last summer to help Scott after the governor’s first few bumpy months in office. He was credited with helping the governor strengthen his relationship with the GOP-controlled Legislature. He also urged the governor to visit newspaper editorial boards, dress more casually at times and hold work days where Scott spent time doing the jobs of other Floridians.

MacNamara, who has been on unpaid leave from his FSU job, was previously the chief of staff for Senate President Mike Haridopolos. He said he was stepping down six months earlier than he had planned and would be moving to Vermont to join his wife where she is in a doctor residency program.

“It is my belief that I have helped Floridians begin to know the real Rick Scott — a man who listens to them, tries to understand their issues and concerns,” MacNamara wrote.

Scott in a statement said that MacNamara had “a tremendous impact” on him and his administration and that he respected his efforts and ideas.

MacNamara found himself recently defending his work for both the governor and while he was in the Senate.

The Associated Press recently reported that while working for the Senate, MacNamara helped steer a $360,000 no-bid consulting contract to a friend who now leads a task force rooting out state government waste.

The Miami Herald and St. Petersburg Times this week wrote a series of additional stories about other contracts and how MacNamara clashed with one agency head over a decision by MacNamara to allow the state’s film commissioner to travel to the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. Several top agency heads — who were hired by Scott when he first took office — wound up resigning within months of MacNamara’s arrival.

MacNamara’s decision to resign also came just hours after he responded to a series of questions from AP regarding his involvement in negotiations between the state and a Tallahassee software company regarding a $20 million contract. The company was represented by a high-powered lobbying firm in the state capital.

Emails show MacNamara was involved in a push to give the governor’s office the ability to resolve any disputes between Infinity Software Development and the Department of Education over management of the contract.

Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson in late November wrote directly to MacNamara to protest “your desire to have another party manage the contract.”

“Having another party manage the Infinity contract and program implementation while remaining unaccountable to FDOE in a real sense only adds another layer of bureaucracy to an already politically-sensitive contractual environment,” Robinson wrote to MacNamara. Robinson’s email records show MacNamara read it about a half-hour after it was sent.

Robinson does not report to the governor or MacNamara but instead reports to the State Board of Education, whose members are appointed by the governor.

When asked about the contract this week, Robinson said that he and Infinity “found common ground” on the contract that was eventually signed in December. He would not answer any questions about MacNamara’s involvement.

MacNamara defended the decision to get involved by saying parents consistently ask the governor about Florida’s education system and that the governor provides “advice, counsel and leadership” to the commissioner.

MacNamara also said in his response that while Gov. Scott and Robinson met once to discuss the contract, he said he was “not involved in the negotiations” and left all discussions to his deputy chief of staff.

He said the idea to have the governor’s office mediate any disputes was suggested by his office because the state was behind schedule on the contract and it was being paid by federal Race to the Top grant dollars. Infinity got the contract after challenging the initial bid award to Microsoft.

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President Barack Obama

But financially, President Barack Obama is showing that is no detriment to raising money in the region. Federal Election Commission records show Obama is outraising Mitt Romney among Sarasota and Manatee County donors in the 2012 election cycle.

Obama has raised $445,000 from donors in the region through the first three months of 2012. Romney has raised $402,000, according to the latest FEC records.

Both campaigns have held fundraising events in Sarasota over the last 12 months. Twice Romney, relying heavily on local developer Carlos Beruff, has held fundraising events in the area. In January, first lady Michelle Obama attended a Sarasota fundraiser at the home of Sarasota’s Caren Lobo.

Mitt Romney

But there is good news for Romney beyond Sarasota and Manatee. Statewide Romney has raised $7.4 million from Florida donors, while Obama has raised $6.2 million in the state. That is significant because Obama easily outraised Republican John McCain during the 2008 election cycle in Florida. In that race, Obama raised $20 million from Florida compared to McCain’s $14 million.

McCain easily carried Manatee County in 2008, but won Sarasota County by just 211 votes. A Democrat has not carried Sarasota County since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s last election for president in 1944.

Buchanan firing back

Attorneys and staff for U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Longboat Key, are livid at what they say is a “fundamentally flawed” and unfair report about the congressman.

Vern Buchanan

The Office of Congressional Ethics, or OCE, released a 184-page report last week that concluded there was “substantial reason to believe” that Buchanan had tried to influence the testimony of a witness in an investigation into the Congressman related to his campaign finances.

Buchanan’s attorneys are fighting back, saying the OCE investigators misstated evidence, concealed information from them and “turned its back on its basic obligations.”

Buchanan’s high-powered Washington attorneys at the law firm of Patton Boggs are blasting the OCE publicly for mishandling the case. In a sharply-worded letter Buchanan’s camp sent to the media, Patton Boggs attorneys say the OCE is continuing a pattern of shoddy work that they have been admonished for in the past by the separate House Ethics Committee.

“The OCE staff obviously learned nothing from the Committee’s admonitions,” the letter from attorneys Robert D. Luskin, William J. McGinley and Benjamin D. Wood states.

In past cases involving U.S. Reps Sam Graves, R-Mo., and Rep. Fortney “Pete” Stark, D-Calif., the House Ethics Committee chastised the OCE for “fundamentally flawed” and “inadequate” investigations, according to the letter.

At the core of the new Buchanan report, OCE investigators say Buchanan tried to get his former business partner, Sam Kazran, to sign a false affidavit in 2008 to conceal Buchanan’s role in an illegal campaign fundraising scheme while the Federal Election Commission was reviewing the matter.

Buchanan’s attorneys have long denied Buchanan had any role in the illegal campaign donations that Kazran has admitted to arranging for Buchanan’s 2006 and 2008 campaigns.

OCE officials defended their work in a statement sent to the media.

“The OCE conducted this review, as it does all its investigations, in a manner that was thorough and professional, taking great care to abide by the letter and the spirit of our rules and procedures,” the statement says.

Buchanan, who turned 61 last week, represents all of Sarasota and most of Manatee County in the U.S. House.

Commission clash

Joe McClash

It took all of two minutes for Manatee County Commissioner Joe McClash to go after Betsy Benac, his Republican opponent for re-election in their first big candidate forum of the election season.

Speaking to more than 80 people at the East Manatee Republican Club meeting Thursday, McClash, a 22-year incumbent, wasted little time trying to paint Benac as the developers’ candidate. McClash said Benac, when she worked for the engineering firm Wilson-Miller, tried to work around county rules to allow more development density than should be allowed on Bradenton Beach.

“We have a quality of life we want to protect,” McClash said.

Betsy Benac

But Benac was quick to fight back, saying that as a planner she works for more than just the interest of developers. She said she has worked with property owners and homeowners groups and wants to see a strong quality of life in Manatee County too.

“I would never do anything to harm Manatee County,” said Benac, who now works for the Benderson Development Corp. “I do believe that development is not a dirty word.”

McClash said he does not want to be negative against Benac, but it is a campaign and he has to point out why he’s a better candidate.

“I knew it was coming,” Benac said in an interview after the meeting.

Benac and McClash, both Republicans, are running for District 7, a countywide seat. The two will face off in an August 14 primary.

Though McClash is the incumbent, he’s raised just $1,500 for his campaign compared to Benac, who has raised $48,000.

Area Political Events

Tuesday

• U.S. Senate candidate Mike McCalister speaks to the Nokomis, Osprey, Venice Area Republican Club starting at 6:30 p.m. at the Nokomis Community Center, 234 Nippino Trail, Nokomis. Non-members and guests are welcome.

Thursday

• The Sarasota/Manatee Chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State holds a discussion over proposed state constitutional Amendment 8. That amendment would end a prohibition on tax dollars going directly or indirectly to religious organizations. The meeting is at 10 a.m. at the Fruitville Public Library, 100 Coburn Road, Sarasota.

• New College of Florida political science professor Frank Alcock speaks to the Southeast Manatee County Democratic Club about energy issues. The meeting starts at 11:30 a.m. at the Peridia Golf and Country Club, 4950 Peridia Blvd., Bradenton. Cost for the luncheon is $15. RSVP to Paul Dain at 941-756-4050.

Friday

• Grace Nelson, wife of U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, speaks to the Sarasota County Democratic Party about women’s issues starting at 5 p.m. at Sarasota Vineyard, 1528 Main Street, Sarasota. Free. For more information call 330-9400.

Saturday

• The Sarasota County Republican Party holds its monthly meeting starting at 10 a.m. at the party’s new “sub-station” at 1260 S. Tamiami Trial, Osprey.

• Retired federal judge Marvin Morse & Sarasota Chapter president of Americans United speaks to the Venice Area Democratic Club at 10:30 a.m. at Naar Hall, United Church of Christ, 620 Shamrock Blvd., Venice. Free. For more information call 492-5965 or go to www.venicedemocrats.org.