KFI will be live at the Republican debate in Simi Valley tonight, and will bring you the latest as it happens

Florida puts McCain, Romney in battle for GOP lead

MIAMI, Florida (CNN)—Sen. John McCain’s Florida win essentially turns the GOP presidential race into a two-man contest between the Arizonan and Mitt Romney as the campaigns geared up Wednesday for next week’s Super Tuesday races.

With 99 percent of Republican precincts reporting from Florida after Tuesday’s voting, McCain held a five-point lead, 36 percent to 31 percent, over Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani placed a distant third with 15 percent of the vote, followed closely by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who held 14 percent. . .

Presidential election: Among GOP voters, ire over illegal immigration

ORANGE - In a state where illegal immigration is among the most important Republican election issues, in one of the state’s most Republican counties, a battle has been raging in an Albertsons parking lot.

At Chapman Avenue and Hewes Street, dozens of day laborers – many of whom are illegal immigrants – have been swarming mothers driving SUVs as they pull in to buy groceries, fed-up locals complain. Women say they are nervous to drop off laundry at the dry cleaners next door and men heading into the Ace Hardware are reluctant to leave their tools in the back of their pickup trucks.

The night after Florida’s Republican primary, many of these locals will be glued to their TV sets tonight to watch the CNN-L.A. Times Republican debate broadcast from the Reagan library in Simi Valley. They will be listening carefully for what the candidates have to say about immigration, an issue that has become a defining one for Republicans. They have taken an increasingly tougher stand on the question as the campaign gets closer to California and more than 20 other states on Super Tuesday. . .

Calif. lawmaker pulls bill that would impose vehicle emission fee

SACRAMENTO—Unable to overcome auto industry opposition, a state lawmaker shelved an ambitious proposal Tuesday that would have charged car buyers a fee for purchasing high-polluting vehicles.

Redwood City Democrat Ira Ruskin said he withdrew his bill because he did not have the votes to pass it. It would have imposed a $2,500 surcharge on vehicles that spew the highest levels of greenhouse gases.

Ruskin and environmental groups had tried for more than a year to create a program giving incentives to Californians who buy cleaner cars, sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks. . .