Winner of the week: Equality Florida. The gay rights group cheered a couple big wins in the past week: Political newcomer Michael Smith, who is gay, handily beat incumbent Largo City Commissioner Mary Gray Black in a campaign where she tried to make his sexual orientation an issue. And Broward became Florida's first county to require that large contractors offer their employees equal benefits for same-sex couples and married couples if they want county business.

Losers of the week: Adam Hasner, George LeMieux, Mike McCalister. They've been campaigning for the GOP Senate nomination for nearly a year. Suddenly, U.S. Rep. Connie Mack IV jumps into the race and thanks to his famous name, leads everybody else by more than 20 percentage points.