Glance at the website for Republican Attorney General candidate Pam Bondi and you might think she's running for Congress. "Bondi vs. Pelosi,'' it declares, promising she will "stand up to Washington."

Likewise the Florida GOP TV ads almost sound like Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink must be running for office in Washington instead of Tallahassee: footage of President Barack Obama urging people to do "whatever it takes" to elect Sink and a grave narrator noting that Sink supported Obama's health care overhaul and stimulus package.

And Republican gubernatorial nominee Rick Scott rarely misses a chance to accuse Sink of supporting Obama's "big government" agenda.

With most signs pointing to big Republican gains in the fall midterm elections, Republican strategists are determined to turn even local and state races into referendums on Obama and the Democratic Party nationally. But one of the key questions is whether the Republican tide will rise to the level of a tsunami that not only changes control over the U.S. House and Senate, but sweeps Republicans into offices up and down the ticket in Florida and across the country.

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