Jim Cassady, chief of staff for state of the state Department of Financial Services for Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, is going to move over to Sink’s campaign for governor—but not as campaign manager.

The Sink campaign for governor already has a top administrator, campaign manager Paul Dunn.

Dunn will stay in that position, and Cassady “doesn’t have a defined title at this moment,” said campaign spokeswoman Conchita Cruz. “He’s obviously going to play an important role in the campaign.”

Cassady will be replaced by Tammy Teston, who currently is deputy CFO.

Like Sink, Cassady is a former banker—he was Broward County president for Bank of America, where Sink was state president.

Like Sink’s husband Bill McBride, Cassady also is a veteran who won a Bronze Star in Vietnam.

If Pam Bondi gets into the Republican primary for Florida attorney general, it could be a contest among dog lovers.

Bondi, an assistant state attorney and press spokeswoman in the Hillsborough state attorney’s office, is considering running against Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp and former state health care administration Chief Holly Benson in the primary.

Bondi got national press attention in 2007 when she took in what she thought was an abandoned St. Bernard from New Orleans that had ended up, severely underweight and afflicted with parasites, in a Pinellas County animal shelter after Hurricane Katrina.

She eventually went through an unsuccessful legal battle in an attempt to keep the dog when its New Orleans family reclaimed ownerhship. She reached a settlement agreement under which she will pay for the dog’s food and veterinary care, and have visitation rights with the dog she called Noah, and the New Orleans family called Master Tank.

Bondi later got a new St. Bernard puppy.

Kottkamp, meanwhile, has been known in the state Legislature for legislation against animal abuse.

He successfully sponsored a 2002 bill—after trying unsuccessfully in 2001—to make intentional cruelty to an animal a felony.

“We kept getting contacted by domestic abuse shelters and quickly learned that there was a link between animal and domestic abuse,” he said. “Virtually every mass murderer and a lot of other murderers start out with intentional acts of cruelty against animals. It’s a sign that somebody is going to slip further.”

His wife, Cyndie Kottkamp, got involved in establishing pet shelters at domestic violence shelters, because domestic violence victims sometimes refused to go to a shelter for fear the abuser would kill a pet left behind, he said.

The Kottkamps have rescued three dogs from the county dump near their home, where people often abandon pets. They named two of them George and Jeb—after the Bush brothers—and another Buddy.

George went to an adoptive home, but the Kottkamps have kept Jeb and Buddy, both yellow Labrador retrievers.

What about Benson?

Well, she doesn’t actually have a dog right now.

But a spokeswoman wanted it known that Benson claims dog-lover status also. She grew up with basset hounds, and received an award a few years ago for efforts to find homes for retired racing greyhounds, which often end up being euthanized when they can no longer compete on the track.

“She just doesn’t have a dog right now because of the pressure of her schedule,” said spokeswoman Sarah Bascom.

Following word that Florida employers could face a major tax increase for unemployment compensation next year, Kendrick Meek is trying to pin down Gov. Charlie Crist on accepting federal unemployment aid under the stimulus package.

The fund that pays unemployment compensation claims in Florida is running dry because of the state’s 11 percent unemployment, and the state is borrowing from the federal government to pay benefits, the Associated Press reported. To replenish the fund, Florida businesses could face a 12-fold increase in unemployment taxes next year.

Democrats say that wouldn’t be necessary if Republicans in the state Legislature would accept federal stimulus aid for jobless benefits. But that accusation, denied by Republicans, set off a complicated back-and-forth between the parties Wednesday and today, based on intricate wrinkles in the federal legislation and state law.

“What is your position on this critical legislation?” Meek asked Crist in a public letter. “Are you for the stimulus or are you against it?  Is the position of your administration to tax small businesses or not?”

It’s a sensitive subject for Crist, of course, because he has been taking heat from conservatives including his opponent in the Republican Senate primary, Marco Rubio, for supporting the federal stimulus pacckage.

Democrats contend that the Republican-dominated state Legislature refused to accept $444 million in federal unemployment aid last year, making the tax increase necessary.

Republicans responded that the money wouldn’t have been available in time to prevent the tax increase, and the conditions attached would have resulted in a permanent expansion of the state’s unemployment costs.

Democrats, in turn, shot back that the state could have applied for an early infusion of money in time to prevent an automatic tax increase from kicking in, and could have changed the law to go back to the old benefits system after the federal money ran out.

South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint is one of the most prominent Republicans nationally to endorse Marco Rubio in the U.S. Senate primary against Gov. Charlie Crist—but that apparently hasn’t hurt his ability to raise money from Crist allies in Florida.

During a campaign trip through Florida this weekend, DeMint will meet with Rubio, and he’ll also be the guest of honor at a fundraiser held by former Ambassador Mel Sembler of St. Petersburg and his wife, Betty Sembler.

Mel Sembler, who has been one of the most prominent, high-powered Republican fundraisers in Florida, and Betty Sembler are both long-time allies of Crist. Their son Brent Sembler was Crist’s 2006 campaign finance chairman.

Does the fundraiser for a Crist foe mean things have cooled off between Crist and the Semblers?

Sembler couldn’t immediately be reached for comment, but another prominent GOP fundraiser, Al Austin, said no.

Austin, who’s now backing Crist in the Senate primary, was invited to the event but isn’t going—“I’m sympathetic to the cause, but I’m trying to limit the number of causes I get involved in,” he said.

He said the Semblers “are very supportive of Charlie Crist. They’re on his team.”

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