BRINGIN' OUT THE PTP CELEB TO HELP, BABY!

Vern Buchanan, one of the seven candidates seeking to replace Congresswoman Katherine Harris (R - Longboat Key), is pulling out the celebrity card. College basketball analyst and former coach Dick Vitale is hosting a $500 per person fundraising event for the millionaire automobile dealer at his Lakewood Ranch home tonight.

Sarasota Herald-Tribune political reporter Jeremy Wallace notes today that the two men have some common roots. Vitale was head basketball coach at the University of Detroit during the mid-1970s, while Buchanan earned his MBA there in 1986. They met during the 1990s when both men became involved with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Sarasota County.