Fox News | Serafin Gomez

Marco Rubio has no scheduled meeting with Palin, who will be in Jacksonville, Orlando and The Villages retirement community on Tuesday, but the former Florida House speaker’s spokesman said the campaign would fully appreciate support from the former Alaska governor and best-selling author.

*Gainesville Sun | Crist faces a tougher primary as luster dulls

Southern Political Report | Tom Baxter

Is the senatorial campaign of Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, viewed only a few months ago as unstoppable, showing signs of implosion? Most of Crist’s problems are intramural, but they don’t seem to be going away.

• *Not to mention Rubio will give the CPAC keynote address. One candidate’s stock seems to be climbing, the other falling.

Washington Independent | David Weigel

The youthful Republican and ex-Speaker of Florida’s House of Representatives is pushing back against unsourced rumors that he’ll drop out of the 2010 U.S. Senate race.

“It’s not true,” Rubio said before addressing a meeting of the Northeast Leon County Conservative Club.

Trailing Gov. Charlie Crist in polls and in fundraising, Rubio said his campaign has been dogged by periodic reports that he was getting out.

“Those things have been going around every week,” he said with a shrug.

Roll Call | John McArdle

As they continue to mull endorsing former state Speaker Marco Rubio in Florida’s Republican Senate primary, the Club for Growth released a new poll Tuesday that showed Gov. Charlie Crist (R) as the clear frontrunner in this early stage of the race.

But Club for Growth executive director David Keating said Tuesday that the survey also showed that Rubio has room for growth while Crist’s support is “softer than what a lot of people are assuming.”

Pensacola News Journal | Bill Cotterell

The Mason-Dixon Florida Poll, conducted last week among 625 registered voters, indicated 51 percent support for Crist — compared to 23 percent for Rubio. But that was largely a factor of Crist being far better known statewide than the former West Miami legislator.

Among Republicans who recognized both names, Crist’s lead was 33 percent to 31 percent. With an error margin of 6 percent, and 36 percent of GOP voters saying they are undecided, the figures were encouraging for Rubio.

Miami Herald | No Author Listed

Gov. Charlie Crist has vetoed two bills that would have provided public record exemptions.

One of the measures (HB 7093) he vetoed Wednesday would have exempted “proprietary business information” obtained from a telecommunications or broadband company by the Department of Management Services.

Politico | Charles Mahtesian

The Club for Growth, the bane of Republican moderates, has taken another shot at Florida GOP Gov. Charlie Crist, this time nominating him for its Comrade of the Month Award for May.

Kendrick Meek (D): 29 (26)
Charlie Crist (R): 59 (60)
Kendrick Meek (D): 30 (24)
Marco Rubio (R): 31 (26)
(MoE: ±2.8%)

Charlie Crist (R): 59 (54)
Marco Rubio (R): 22 (4)
Other: NA (33)
(MoE: ±4.5%)

Data from Strategic Vision

H/T Swing State Project

Southern Political Report | Gary Reese

Rush Limbaugh and Gen. Colin Powell campaign against each other on the airwaves. Yet there will be no settling the score between them at the ballot box. To decide their squabble about the definition and direction of the Republican Party, proxies will stand in next year in Florida’s GOP primary for U.S. Senate.

Florida Capital News | Bill Cotterell

While insisting that he will “make no apologies” for taking sides in the race for governor, state GOP Chairman Jim Greer says the party is neutral in the U.S. Senate primary.

Several county Republican groups have protested Greer’s avid support of Gov. Charlie Crist in his Senate race with former House Speaker Marco Rubio. Greer has also discouraged GOP competitors for Attorney General Bill McCollum, who is running to succeed Crist as governor.