Another Crack in the Wall
Another crack in the wall known as Charlie Crist’s inevitability developed Tuesday when Sen. Jim Inhofe endorsed Marco Rubio to be the next senator from Florida:
Conservative Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) has endorsed former Florida state House Speaker Marco Rubio (R) in Florida’s open Senate race. Inhofe’s endorsement means he will oppose the NRSC-backed candidate in the race, Gov. Charlie Crist (R).
“Like me, Marco believes that the federal government works best when it returns dollars, decisions and freedom to our local communities and families,” Inhofe said in a statement. “In the Senate, Marco will stand up for America’s taxpayers, not with President Obama and dangerous big government spending.”
The Inhofe endorsement comes a week after Rubio announced raising a strong $1 million in the third quarter. His campaign appears to have new life, as Crist’s standing as the presumptive nominee begins to be called into question.
Couple Sen. Inhofe’s endorsement with Sen. DeMint’s endorsement of Rubio and Rubio suddenly has some strong conservative credibility at a time when Republicans are trending more conservative. Virginia isn’t that dissimilar to Florida in that there’s alot of military voters in both states as well as alot of persuadable independents. The latest polling from Virginia shows 3 solid conservatives holding 7-8 point leads in the governor’s, lt. governor’s and attorney general’s races.
I see no reason to believe that that trend won’t continue well into next year.
Couple that with Gov. Crist’s campaigning with President Obama for passage of the stimulus bill and his raising taxes and you’ve got a fairly unattractive candidate. If it weren’t for his high name recognition, he’d be toast already. With Rubio’s fundraising picking up, there’s plenty of time for him to erase that gap.
The thing that I’m waiting to read about is the size of Rubio’s GOTV army, which I suspect will be large. It isn’t a secret that Jeb Bush doesn’t like Gov. Crist that much. It also isn’t a secret that Jeb’s chief fundraiser, Ann Herberger, is working on Rubio’s campaign. Herberger’s prowess shined through when Mr. Rubio reported raising $1,000,000 for Q3. Rubio’s off to a good start for Q4, too, with Karl Rove already contributing $1,000 to Rubio’s campaign.
There are too many intangibles to ignore Rubio, though that’s precisely what establishment Republicans are trying to do. This race will get alot more competitive in the months to come. At some point, people will notice that it’s a real race with the consistent conservative being the supposed underdog and with the establishment’s more liberal favorite. I’m betting that the establishment RINO won’t play well in this TEA Party environment.
Technorati Tags: Primary, Charlie Crist, RINO, Marco Rubio, Conservative, Jim Inhofe, Jim DeMint, Endorsements, Jeb Bush, Ann Herberger, Fundraiser, Election 2010
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
October 21st, 2009 at 9:08 am
We all view a potential future and make decisions based upon history - the history of anything in particular as we have perceived it in the past.
That said, how long would it be before “Senator Rubio” became a mainstay of the centrists and considered it “his” senate seat, just like most the other “Republicans” now serving in the Senate?
Not that having a social and conservative vote for a term, maybe even two, wouldn’t be better than not having a conservative vote at all. But judging upon history of conservative Republicans changing into what can best be described as “RINOs”, unless Mr. Rubio is a man of honor greater than most of his future colleagues, I wouldn’t hope for more than a partial first term.