People in line for tickets to President Obama’s town hall meeting in southwest Florida say they were told there were none left — 25 minutes after the box office opened.

Barack Hussein Obama grasped the reins of power as America’s first black president on Tuesday, declaring the nation must choose “hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord” to overcome the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, who led the effort to put class-size limits in the state constitution, plans to announce his candidacy for the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, sources close to Meek say.

While awaiting a response from Republican House Speaker Ray Sansom about his dealings with a Panhandle university, Minority Leader Franklin Sands is trying to tamp down a controversy affecting his party.

Gov. Charlie Crist has suspended the mayor of a South Florida city from public office.

President-elect Barack Obama pivoted quickly to begin filling out his new administration on Wednesday, selecting hard-charging Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel as White House chief of staff while aides stepped up the pace of transition work that had been cloaked in pre-election secrecy.

Florida may have turned blue on Election Day, but voters in nearly every county voiced resounding agreement on one conservative measure: Marriage should be defined in the state’s constitution as between a man and a woman.

Gov. Sarah Palin violated no ethics laws when she fired her public safety commissioner, the state personnel board concluded in a report released Monday.

The “pregnant pig” amendment Florida voters adopted six years ago finally goes into effect next week, but its most prominent and enduring role has been to help curtail citizen initiatives.

In his final appeal to Nevada voters, Barack Obama on Saturday returned to the campaign theme of unity that launched his rapid rise in politics, telling voters they can end divisive politics “once and for all” if they elect him to the White House.

Republican John McCain poked fun at his presidential campaign’s financial shortcomings and his reputation as a political maverick in an appearance on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.“

Barack Obama, gunning for a national landslide, now leads in four states won by President Bush in 2004 and is essentially tied with John McCain in two other Republican states, according to new AP-GfK battleground polling.

Republican Sen. Mel Martinez has agreed to pay $99,000 in fines for his campaign’s failure to comply with federal election laws, including its acceptance of excess contributions, records show.

Barack Obama and John McCain both made it a point to stop by the Parksdale Farm Market for Jim Meeks’ strawberry shortcake and milkshakes as they hopped across central Florida.

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens was convicted of seven corruption charges Monday in a trial that threatened to end the 40-year career of Alaska’s political patriarch in disgrace.