Marco Rubio - U.S. Senate - 2010

Miami Herald
BY MICHAEL PUTNEY

Charlie Crist will likely be the Republican Senate nominee next year, but winning the nomination will not be the cakewalk that the conventional wisdom supposes. Marco Rubio, brainy but underfunded, will take a bite — several of them — out of the frontrunner before it’s over.

The former House speaker will score points with conservatives and the media because he’s an articulate and hard-working young policy wonk, exactly what the governor isn’t. Doesn’t hurt in South Florida that he’s also Cuban American.

Rubio’s policies are often out there. He wanted to do away with property taxes altogether and hike the state sales tax to 14 to 15 percent. For federal tax reform, he wants to ”flatten” the personal income tax and give corporate America a bigger tax break.

Rubio’s a big thinker. ”I have to hope and believe that ideas still matter in American politics,” Rubio says.

Crist’s a modest thinker — and big fund raiser. In the last quarter, Crist raked in a record $4.3 million on his way to at least $20 million without breaking a sweat. The tanned, rested and ready governor never sweats because aides tote around a portable fan wherever he goes.

It was blowing at the podium at the Breakers for Charlie’s brief appearance last Friday before the Florida Press Association and Society of News Editors. He skipped their forum for U.S. Senate candidates — so many places to go, so much money to raise — staying just long enough to work the room (nobody does it better) and present an open-government records award to his aide, Pat Gleason: ”Someone courteous, civil and decent,” the governor said of Gleason.

The governor personifies those admirable traits. And yet most of the people who actually accomplish anything, especially in government, generally put more value on new ideas, innovation, competence and kicking butt.

Those are qualities Marco Rubio values. The former Florida House speaker from West Miami was the only candidate at the forum and served notice that he’s on a mission from God and Grover Norquist. He’s going to rough up Charlie on the issues before the primary is over.

Rubio clearly thinks Crist is an intellectual lightweight as well as a turncoat Republican who sold out GOP principles for a mess of pottage — $13 billion in stimulus money. ”I didn’t believe all that money would stimulate the economy, and it hasn’t,” Rubio told me.

Rubio also differs with Crist on lowering taxes, limiting government growth and protecting the environment. ”He favors California-style environmental policy,” Rubio says of Crist. Both men seem willing to entertain the possibility of off-shore oil drilling.

The Wall Street Journal blistered ”Hurricane Charlie” for vetoing a property insurance reform bill that leaves the state liable for billions in the event of a major hurricane; the editorial subhead calls Crist ”The Republican Barney Frank.” Ouch.

Curiously, Crist and Rubio say they’re running because Florida’s problems need to be solved in Washington. They should remember that Lawton Chiles, a very effective and honorable U.S. senator, left Washington precisely because he felt Florida’s problems could better be solved back home. Both Crist and Rubio have spotty records in Tallahassee, so Washington may look appealing.
Rubio bragged at the candidates forum that 57 of his 100 Ideas for Florida became law, which is true, but all of his biggest ideas failed — including swapping property taxes for a humongous sales tax.
Rubio also doth protest too much. ”When the political system is nothing more than a way to get power and control the process you’ve got a problem,” Rubio told editors. He conveniently forgets that he gained power in Tallahassee by carrying lots of water (some of it dirty) for his patron, the truly awful House Speaker Johnny Byrd, and wielded that power when he became speaker.

Rubio raised $340,000 in the last quarter, enough to keep his campaign limping along, with Bush family fund-raiser Ann Herberger working for him. He’s been endorsed by Mike Huckabee, whom voters may vaguely remember, and South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, whom nobody knows, and Dick Armey, whom we’d like to forget. Charlie’s been endorsed by everyone who counts.
Still, Rubio has big ideas going for him. Charlie Crist has the force of a sunny personality and a bipartisan record. Republicans do have a choice, not an echo.