John Avlon reports that a staggering 92% of the political ads run in Florida over the last week have been negative.

“This tsunami of sleaze is being propelled by unprecedented advertising
buys. The Romney campaign and its associated super PAC, Restore Our
Future, have spent $15.3 million in Florida over the past month alone…
To put this in perspective, John McCain spent $11 million on ads during
his entire 2008 primary campaign.”

Notes ad tracker Kenneth Goldstein: “For as long as I’ve been in politics, 14 years, journalists call me and ask if this is the most negative election ad atmosphere I’ve ever seen. And every year I say, ‘Don’t be ridiculous. But this year it’s true. This primary season is the most negative it’s ever been. I have absolutely never seen television advertising so negative in a Republican presidential primary.”

Congressional Democrats “are embracing the populist agenda President Obama outlined in his State of the Union speech,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada is planning votes all spring and summer in an attempt to end the tax breaks that corporations and wealthy individuals like Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney enjoy.”

“Democrats would prefer to frame this election as a choice between the two parties, using these kinds of contrasts, rather than, as Republicans position the campaign, a referendum on Obama’s policies.”

Comedian Stephen Colbert’s “satirical super PAC raised some serious cash,” Politico reports.

“Between July 1 and Dec. 31, Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow collected more than $825,400, ending the year with nearly $674,000 cash on hand, according to disclosures filed over night with the Federal Election Commission.”

“What a pathetic situation to be running for the President of the United States with nothing positive to say. All you got to do is try to tear your opponent down to where they get smaller than you are, that’s the Romney model.”

— Newt Gingrich, quoted by NBC News, criticizing GOP rival Mitt Romney.

A new Pew Research poll finds Republicans remain unimpressed with their party’s presidential field. In fact, more Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say the GOP field is only fair or poor (52%) than did so in early January (44%).

By comparison, just 46% of Republican voters have positive opinions of the GOP field. At about this point four years ago, 68% of Republican and GOP-leaning voters rated the field as excellent or good.

For the first time in about two-and-a-half years, a national Rasmussen survey finds Democrats leading Republicans in the generic congressional ballot, 41% to 40%.

Rick Klein predicts that the bad blood between Gingrich and Romney could have long-term consequences for the Republican party.

“Gingrich is accusing Romney not just of liberal and moderate viewpoints, but of a craven dishonesty in his attacks — the kind of dishonesty that will make it seem strained at best when and if Gingrich throws his support behind Romney for the general election. He’s using the attacks to fuel an argument that Romney simply can’t beat President Obama in November. Sarah Palin, speaking to the tea party activists and other base conservatives, is emerging as Gingrich’s chief ally in arguing for the campaign to continue. Her voice was reinforced by that of former candidate Herman Cain, whose endorsement of Gingrich Saturday puts an exclamation point on the split between the party’s establishment and anti-establishment wings.”

Walter Shapiro says Newt Gingrich may indeed be the second coming of Ronald Reagan. But it is not Reagan the governor nor Reagan the transformative president. Rather its the stubborn Reagan who bedeviled Jerry Ford all the way to the 1976 Kansas City Convention.

“None of this guarantees that political history will repeat itself as either tragedy or farce. But again and again, the largely youthful campaign press corps has sold Gingrich short. Maybe Florida is indeed the end of the line for Gingrich’s frail hopes to be the GOP nominee. But all it takes for Gingrich to prove that he is not yesterday’s man is a GOP primary electorate that remembers yesterday — and the day before.”

“Vote for Newt. Annoy a liberal. Vote Newt. Keep this vetting process going, keep the debate going.”

— Sarah Palin, quoted by National Review.

Coming this spring: The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science — and Reality by Chris Mooney.

Newt Gingrich’s campaign has launched TalesofMitt.com, full of recent flip-flops by the Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney.

It is certain that Democratic political operatives have already been
documenting many of these moments, but they have to be happy to have
Republicans lay the groundwork and soften the target with slick ads
using the material.

As Super PACs raise larger and larger sums of money to put towards operations supporting specific candidates, Politico
reports that these organizations are evolving to become more like
shadow campaigns, “including phone banking, field organizing, direct
mail, polling, state-of-the-race memos and even surrogate operations.”

“The
ambitious expansion is another example of a shift in political
power away from the major parties and their candidates to deep-pocketed
outsiders. But it’s left campaign operatives and even candidates
grumbling about whether the super PACs are actually helping their
favored candidates… With advertising, campaigns and outside groups
can figure out what one another are doing by consulting spending reports
with details of buys that each is required to disclose in close to real
time. With on-the-ground organizing, it’s tougher to determine quickly
who’s doing what, while staying within the bounds of the rules.”

Josh Putnam looks at the filing deadlines and notes that after Tuesday it will be mathematically too late for someone to enter the Republican presidential race and still be able to win the 1144 delegates needed for the nomination.

Of course, it’s still possible someone could run to deny one of the existing candidates the magic number.

A USA Today/Gallup poll in the dozen most competitive states finds President Obama and Mitt Romney essentially tied while Newt Gingrich trails the president by a whopping 14 points.

The survey focuses on the nation’s most competitive battlegrounds: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.