TODAY'S PRESIDENTIAL POLITICAL NEWS AROUND FLORIDA

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has been working hard early in his campaign forming a Florida organization. Thursday, his campaign announced that 77 men and women from across the Sunshine State --- none from here in Polk County, but several from across the I-4 Corridor --- had agreed to serve as the Romney for President Florida Statewide Finance Committee.

The list includes National Finance Co-Chairs Mark Guzzetta, a Boca Raton developer, and former Ambassador Mel Sembler of St. Petersburg. Other names of note include former State House Speakers Allan Bense of Panama City and John Thrasher of Jacksonville, former State GOP Chairman Al Cardenas of Miami, and former Lieutenant Governor Toni Jennings of Orlando.

U.S. Senator Barack Obama, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, will be visiting Florida for a couple of fundraising events in West Palm Beach on March 25.

The Palm Beach Post political blog Q notes that supporters are hoping to attract a crowd of 1,000 --- paying $100 each --- for an event at the Kraus Center. That will be followed by a $2,300 meet-and-greet event at the home of billionaire Netscape founder Jim Clark.

And the St. Petersburg Times notes that former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani attracted a crowd of transplanted New Yorkers and snowbirds from the region to his first public campaign stop in Florida Thursday in Delray Beach. He pressed the flesh with the crowd before heading to a private fundraising reception. Giuliani has been much slower in organizing a Florida campaign team than GOP primary opponents Romney and U.S. Senator John McCain, and acknowledged that he is having to hasten his operation more than originally expected.