Word: rubio
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Under that scenario, Florida's mess also becomes the country's in at least one respect. The state's GOP Senate primary contest between Crist and former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio is widely considered a focal point of this year's internecine war between moderates and conservatives for control of the Republican Party. Should the Rothstein scandal leak into that powder keg, it could exacerbate what already promises to be a particularly nasty campaign on both sides before the August primary. (See the 25 crimes of the century...
...Rubio and his conservative backers have fixed political floodlights on a photo of Crist sharing a hug with President Obama last year as the governor welcomed federal stimulus money into Florida. But they probably won't be so eager to exploit the support Crist received from Rothstein (who, by the way, helped Crist blow out the candles on that $52,000 birthday cake), because some of those conservative boosters may well be shown to have received Rothstein's dirty largesse themselves. They could include GOP legislators in Tallahassee, where federal agents last month came calling to question politicians from both...
...most that Republicans can hope for is to regain control of the House and pick up a net gain of five seats in the Senate. But in order to achieve this, Republicans must unify their fractured party, and given the spate of conservative primary challenges, from Mark Rubio in Florida to Rand Paul in Kentucky, this will be no easy task. The tea-party movement is also making life difficult for new recruits like Griffith, who after switching parties now faces a tough primary. And the GOP is plagued by cash woes. After spending heavily in the Virginia...
...Perhaps Crist's biggest asset is money. The conservative groundswell for Rubio has netted his campaign a surprising $1 million; Crist, however, has $5 million, which could begin raining down on his opponent early next year. After last week's Rasmussen poll, Rubio declared that as a result of "our campaign's growing momentum, voters are starting to realize that there are vast differences between me and Charlie Crist on a number of important issues." But Crist ads will question that assertion - as well as Rubio's record on matters like immigration reform and cap-and-trade policies to limit...
...Still, at this point Crist has to be careful that conservative voters don't take his attacks on Rubio as attacks on them. He also has to hope that Jeb Bush, whose work as Governor he professes to admire, doesn't decide to throw his still heavy political weight behind Rubio. In a speech to Republicans in Fort Lauderdale last month, a seemingly frustrated Crist read off a litany of his conservative stances and said, "I don't know what else you're supposed to be, except maybe angry too." And yet, if he's going to right his campaign...