Rep. Steve Southerland's top aide wants congress to stand w Ted Cruz

An oddly flat gathering of Florida GOP leaders and activists ended this afternoon at Disney World, with barely a public utterance of Barack Obama, Obamacare, the budget impasse in Washington, Common Core or other hot button issues for the GOP base. But that doesn't mean those issues still aren't very much on the minds of local party officials.

A caucus of state committee members passed a resolution asking the party to stand Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and urge urge congressional Republicans to stand their ground and refuse to fund the Affordable Care Act.

"This is not a time for us to back down up in D.C," declared Bay County state committeeman Jonathan Hayes, who is also chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Steve Southerland, R-Panama City. "We must win this battle. This shut down is President Obama's fault. This shut down is Harry Reid's fault and the American people have got to hear it."

It's not clear when - if ever - the full executive committee will take up the matter. State party chairman Lenny Curry declined to weigh in on the budget mess in Washington.

"We have diverse voices on the government shut down, and it's my job as chairman of the party to keep all these voices in the same tent and focus on the common goal - and our biggest thing in Florida are the 2014 election" Curry said.