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Rubio bowing out of Senate race?
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Congress Daily is reporting that Former Florida Statehouse Speaker Marco Rubio is seriously considering ending his campaign for the U.S. Senate seat and instead run for state attorney general. Despite playing up his conservative credentials and even picking up some national endorsements, Rubio has failed to keep pace with GOP rival Gov. Charlie Crist's fund-raising. While Crist raised over $4.3 million over the second quarter of 2009, Rubio raised a pathetic $340,000. While National Review insists that Rubio could catch up if Sarah Palin came out swinging for him, rumors about Rubio bailing on the Senate race will only further weaken his candidacy.
If Rubio pulls out, Crist will clearly profit from having his most prominent Republican rival out of the race but there may be another winner if Rubio exits the race. Conservatives who remain unhappy with Crist over his support of the Obama stimulus plan may take a look at former U.S. Senator Bob Smith who left New Hampshire for Sarasota. During his two terms, Smith ranked as one of the leading social conservatives in the Senate and he was active in fighting to preserve the Everglades and in keeping Elian Gonzalez in the United States. Smith has been very critical of the stimulus plan but his political career has often been erratic. After ramping up to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 1999, Smith instead launched a third party campaign only to quickly terminate it. After the Bush administration failed to back his bid for another term in 2002, Smith endorsed John Kerry in 2004. Smith is up front about his history and there are detailed explanations about his third party bid and his Kerry endorsement on his website.
If Rubio decides to run for state AG, he faces an open Republican field. While there are rumors that Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp may be interested, there are no major candidates currently in the running. Nor would Rubio be alone in abandoning a Senate campaign for a shot at AG. State Senator Dan Gelber, who is now locked in a close contest with State Senator Dave Aronberg for the Democratic nomination, did the exact same thing.
While Rubio continues to get endorsements from national figures (the latest being former GOP House Majority Leader Dick Armey) and winning the occasional straw poll (including crushing Crist in the Lee County GOP Executive Committee straw poll earlier this week), the rumors that the fat lady is warming up will only make what has already been a bad week for the candidate even worse.
