Going Green Has Never Been Easier!
May 5, 2009 8:05 pm US/Eastern
Fmr. House Speaker Rubio To Run For Senate Seat
Rubio Betting On Swing Back To Conservatism
Old School Republican Uses New Fangled Tools
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
Marco Rubio, the former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, officially announced his candidacy for the United States Senate today, putting the word out on the internet. Rubio, a young, charismatic speaker and staunch conservative, has made liberal use of Facebook, mass e-mailings, and the web in exploring and announcing his senate bid.
"It's an effective way to communicate with thousands of people instantly," Rubio told
CBS4 News reporter Gary Nelson.
In the campaign announcement, delivered at his website,
www.marcorubio.com, Rubio framed his campaign as an unabashedly conservative challenge to President Barack Obama's stimulus program and growing government involvement in American business.
Click Here to watch the video.
In an interview with
CBS4's Gary Nelson, Rubio mocked Obama's "change you can believe in" campaign slogan. "The change that's being offered in Washington today is a greater reliance on government and the use of our tax system to distribute the wealth and pick winners and losers," Rubio said. "What I'm going to be a part of is what I hope will be an increasing number of voices that say 'we offer an alternative to the direction we're headed right now,' that will say, 'you don't have to turn your economy over to the government.'"
Rubio was critical of his own party and, without making direct reference to him, Governor Charlie Crist, who has yet to decide whether he will run for the Senate seat being vacated by out-going Republican Mel Martinez.
"Republicans have long said they are for limited government, and yet, when they were in power in Washington, they didn't limit the size of government," Rubio said. "I will tell you that the way to grow the Republican Party is not to become more like democrats."
Crist drew criticism from conservative ranks in February when he shared a stage in Florida with President Obama and embraced the President's economic stimulus plan.
Rubio and Crist have been estranged since the Governor refused to support Rubio's efforts as speaker of the house to dramatically cut property taxes. Crist had earlier promised that property taxes would "drop like a rock," an un-kept promise that Rubio is expected to seize on if Crist decides to enter the Republican U.S. Senate primary. "I believe to this day, that if some of my property tax ideas had been implemented, Florida's economy would be much better off than it is right now," Rubio said.
Rubio becomes the first major Republican candidate to officially announce for the senate race. Crist has said he will make a decision after the current legislative session is concluded. Attorney General Bill McCollum and Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink have said they will not run.
Major Democrats who have announced include Congressman Kendrick Meek of North Miami-Dade and State Senator Dan Gelber of Miami Beach. North Miami Mayor Kevin Burns--who is openly gay--is also seeking the democratic nomination.
Rubio told
CBS4's Nelson that he knows he will have his work cut out for him if he wins the republican nomination. "We have a very popular president who will be coming to Florida to campaign and to raise money against me," Rubio said. "Nothing in life worth doing is easy. I believe this is worth doing."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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