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From the Orlando Sentinel:
State Republicans moved the three-way U.S. Senate race to a new level Saturday, with party leaders pointing to an audit of their books they say implies Gov. Charlie Crist — now an independent candidate for U.S. Senate — ran up potentially “hundreds of thousands” of dollars in inappropriate charges.
Party Chairman and state Sen. John Thrasher said the expenses came to light during the just-completed forensic audit by Alston & Bird LLP — which was the examiner in energy giant Enron’s 2002 bankruptcy. He said the party may sue their former standard bearer to get the money back.
The announcement is rife with political implications, given that Crist and Republican Senate candidate Marco Rubio are running neck and neck in many polls, with Democrat Kendrick Meek a distant third.
The review, which the party did not make public but may release later, was initiated earlier this year after former state GOP Chairman Jim Greer was forced from office, in part by accusations of extravagant spending. Thrasher, who took Greer’s place, discussed the report’s findings after a three-hour, closed-door meeting with the party’s executive board at Disney’s Boardwalk Resort.
for full article:
He has “wowed” the voters with his easy going manner at campaign events throughout the State of Florida. He speaks with fluidity, and on most occasions without a teleprompter. In fact, the teleprompter is often a distraction for him. And he can answer questions with a substantive response, in less than 17 minutes.
While I have quipped before that I would like to see Marco Rubio run for the White House in 2016 or 2020, it seems that some, with far better political knowledge than I, think that, just as the Obamessiah chose “this moment” to seize his time in the White House, Rubio may be able to parlay what Obama has done with this moment to catapult him onto the national scene, right into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
In less than 24 hours, several article have appeared making the case for a “Rubio for President” campaign:
On a blogger conference call held Monday, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani of New York, a Republican, referred to former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio as “new blood” and “the future of our party.” I couldn’t agree more, and although this will undoubtedly sound premature to some, I believe that if Marco Rubio goes on to win the U.S. Senate seat in Florida in November, he should immediately think about running for president — possibly in 2012.
But the same arguments for why Obama was right to take the plunge in 2008 could be made for why Rubio should run in 2012. Obama won for a variety of reasons, including that he had not been in the U.S. Senate long enough to have acquired the out-of-touch mentality that comes with serving in the most exclusive private club in America. Additionally, he did not have a long paper trail of controversial votes that might be used against him (and his tenure in the Illinois Senate did not harm him to the degree it might have because the rules allowed him to skip controversial stands by voting “present.”) Obama was also a fresh face who lacked the historical baggage that other Democratic candidates — Hillary Clinton, for example — had to carry. Being a blank slate allowed voters to believe in his hope and change message. And because he was not part of the past, he was able to transcend some of the old arguments and alliances that dogged candidates like Clinton, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, and even John Edwards.
And while I’m not a big believer in identity politics, clearly Rubio – the charismatic and young scion of Cuban refugees — has a chance to repair the Republican brand image among both the Hispanic and youth vote. What is more, within the GOP, he does a good job of bridging the divide between conservative outsiders and establishment Republicans.
Perhaps the best argument for why Rubio should run in 2012 is the reason it’s a less attractive possibility for him to wait until 2016. First, he would be up for re-election in Florida that year. He also will by then have become a “senator” – and, thus, perhaps less appealing to presidential voters. Perhaps most important, former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida may by then believe the Bush name has been rehabilitated enough for him to make a run himself. Barack Obama was wise to seize his opportunity.
Will Marco Rubio?
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/04/06/marco-rubio-for-president-in-2012/
from Politico:
Marco Rubio’s remarkable fundraising haul — $3.6 million this quarter, he just announced — is a reminder of the scale of his stardom inside the Republican Party, all of whose core constituencies seem to like the guy.
He’s already hearing every day (and brushing it off) that he should run for president in 2012, and at the inevitable moment in the cycle (as in every party, every cycle) when Republicans panic about their field of nominees, he’s likely to be uniquely attractive: young, conservative, Hispanic and from a swing state besides.
The buzz for a Rubio candidacy is broad, and deep. Observers like Matt Lewis have made the case publicly, and my impression is that if a swath of conservative leaders haven’t talked up his candidacy, it’s only because they haven’t been asked. I was talking to the Southern Baptist Convention’s Richard Land earlier this year for another story when he brought Rubio up, unasked.
“The longer nobody catches fire, the more space there is for Marco,” he said. “It wouldn’t be unheard of for a freshman senator from Florida to be the nominee — particularly one who was speaker of the [Florida Assembly].
“He’s got more experience than Obama had,” Land continued. “There are a lot of Hispanics in this country who would find someone with Marco’s ethnic background very appealing. Although I like Sarah [Palin], I think Sarah’s got a lot more impediments to a nomination than Marco Rubio does.”
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0410/Rubios_path.html
