MIAMI- It has not been a good weekend for Florida front-runner Marco Rubio who is running in an acrimonious primary race for Senate against Gov. Charlie Crist.
Sure, the week started off well–tremendously well– if you are a Rubio supporter: Two polls this past week ( albeit automated phone polls) announced that the former insurgent candidate who had trailed Crist by as much as 30 points a year ago, was now leading the formerly popular governor, Crist, by that same amount. What a swing. Rubio could go into prevent defense.
But now, the game perhaps, or at least, the distance to the end zone, has changed. It is not easy being the front-runner in the fourth most populous state, because the Florida media will vet you, and they have, with bared teeth(Just ask Charlie Crist a few months ago).
Adam Smith , Dean of the Florida political press corps, has penned a tough article at the Saint Petersburg Times that does not bode well for the Rubio campaign. In it, he lists Rubio’s eye brow-raising spending record with his political action committees while a member of the Florida House(which includes naming his wife as “Treasurer” of one of them).
Direct from Smith’s article:
– Rubio failed to disclose $34,000 in expenses including $7,000 he paid himself for one of the committees in 2003 and 2004, as required by state law.
– One committee paid relatives nearly $14,000 for what was incorrectly described to the IRS as “courier fees” and listed a nonexistent address for one of them. Another committee paid $5,700 to his wife, who was listed as the treasurer, much of it for “gas and meals.”
– He billed more than $51,000 in unidentified “travel expenses” to three different credit cards nearly one-quarter of the committee’s entire haul. Charges are not required to be itemized, but other lawmakers detailed almost all of their committee expenses.
Rubio’s spending continued in 2005 when the Republican Party of Florida handed him a credit card to use at his own discretion. While serving as House speaker in 2007 and 2008, he charged thousands of dollars in restaurant tabs to the state party at the same time taxpayers were subsidizing his meals in Tallahassee.
“Every single thing Marco Rubio did was in accordance with both the letter and spirit, not only of Florida law, but of the policies and practices of the Republican Party of Florida,” said Rubio campaign adviser Todd Harris, though he admitted the $34,000 in expenses should have been reported. “While every penny was accounted for, not all of the bureaucratic paperwork was filed and we will take whatever steps are appropriate to make sure that gets done.”
He added: “This is not taxpayer money we’re talking about.”