Personally i would hardly consider Tampa and Orlando as Dixie. Slightly conservative? certainly. Though not Southern and more an odd mish-mash of liberal and conservative, mostly pro-development, but with an odd pro-environmental strain in the Tampa area. Gainesville, FL is an odd duck miniature city-state: half-Southern, half-hippie values, similar to Athens, GA.
Yeah the west coast of Florida has always been a little hard to predict. Another good example is Sarasota - which is 1/3 southern, 1/3 hippe and a 1/3 retired.
But in the east, generally, once you are in Martin and up - it's southern. That's doesn't mean there aren't nice towns up the coast - Stuart, Verio, Coco Beach. Daytona, etc etc.
