The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Top Rubio Staffer Reportedly Pushed for Early Florida Primary to Help Romney

Posted on | October 13, 2011 | 127 Comments

* * * UPDATE OCT. 14 * * *

Marco Rubio Denies His Office
Influenced Florida Primary Date

PREVIOUSLY (OCT. 13)
* * * EXCLUSIVE * * *

When Florida defied Republican National Committee rules to move the state’s 2012 presidential primary from an RNC-approved March date to Jan. 31, conservatives immediately suspected that state party insiders had orchestrated the move to help former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney thwart the momentum of Tea Party-backed candidate Herman Cain. Some Florida activists focused their suspicion on moderates in state party leadership — allies of Senate candidate George LeMieux and of former Gov. Charlie Crist — as orchestrating the change in the primary date. The move was seen as helping the centrist Romney, whose superior fund-raising resources would enable him to score an early knockout in the Sunshine State before Cain could fully leverage the boost he got from an upset victory in a Sept. 24 Florida GOP straw poll.

Yet while the moderate Republican faction in Tallahassee was immediately blamed for the primary date-switch, only insiders knew that a key factor was a push from inside the staff of the Tea Party’s own 2010 hero, Sen. Marco Rubio. GOP sources in Washington and Florida say that Rubio’s senatorial chief of staff, Cesar Conda, has been a major force in persuading Florida Republicans to move their primary to January.

“Cesar used to be with Romney’s campaign,” one informed source explained to me in an interview today, adding: “Conda used his contacts to push the primary to the 31st because they want Romney in.”

Conda’s loyalty to Romney was highlighted in a Politico story by Scott Wong last week: “At least six past and current Rubio Senate aides, including chief of staff Cesar Conda and his deputy, Terry Sullivan, worked for Romney’s 2008 presidential bid, establishing a direct link and a line of communication between the front-runner for the 2012 GOP nomination and the front-runner in the Republican veepstakes. There’s also a trail of fundraisers, donors and consultants who have overlapping relationships with Rubio and Romney.”

In a March 2010 column for National Review, Conda defended the so-called “RomneyCare” Massachusetts health insurance program. A former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, Conda was originally an ally of Crist, as the St. Petersburg Times noted when Conda was picked as Rubio’s chief of chief in January 2011:

Like many Republicans, Conda once thought Charlie Crist would be the next senator but later distanced himself from the former Florida governor, saying he lacked conservative credentials.
Conda has worked as a lobbyist and analyst for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and founded the Washington office of Navigators, a lobbying/consulting firm where another top Rubio adviser, Todd Harris, also worked.
The firm’s clients included GlaxoSmithKline, At&T, Visa and Citigroup, which got $45 billion under the bank bailout.

Some have speculated that, by delivering Florida for Romney, Conda would not only help Romney lock up the 2012 presidential nomination, but also secure the 2012 vice-presidential pick for Rubio.

It was Rubio’s underdog campaign that helped spark Tea Party activism in Florida and across the nation. Florida GOP chairman Jim Greer and National Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) conspired to “fix” the 2010 Senate primary in Florida with a May 2009 endorsement of the moderate Crist. At that point leading Rubio by more than 30 points in polls, Crist was seen as the safe bet in Florida’s Senate race. But the Greer/Cornyn endorsement backfired, as conservatives pointed out Crist’s embrace of President Obama’s deficit-spending “stimulus” agenda and denounced the effort by party insiders to determine the Republican candidate 15 months ahead of the August 2010 primary. The newly aroused Tea Party movement made Rubio their hero. Crist, overwhelmed by the conservative rally for Rubio, quit the GOP to launch a doomed third-party Senate race. Crist’s ally Greer resigned in disgrace and is now under criminal indictment for corruption charges.

Reports that Rubio — or at least Rubio’s top aides — are working behind the scenes for Romney, who is seen as representing the RINO (“Republican In Name Only”) moderate wing of the party, will be a bitter disappointment for conservatives who supported Rubio’s insurgent campaign last year. Many Tea Party activists who backed Rubio against Crist in the 2010 primary are now supporting Cain, the conservative Atlanta businessman who has surged to the front of the the Republican presidential pack in the past three weeks.

Cain’s candidacy got a boost not only from his Sept. 24 straw-poll win, but also from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s announcement last week that she would not seek the White House in 2012. In an appearance on  Greta Van Susteren’s Fox News Channel program to discuss her decision, Palin singled out Cain for praise, saying she was “intrigued” and “impressed” with Cain’s “business acumen” and “up by the bootstraps” success.

The latest Rasmussen poll shows Cain tied with Romney nationally. Recent polls by Public Policy Polling and NBC/Wall Street Journal show Cain now leading Romney, and within 3 points of the longtime GOP frontrunner in the influential Real Clear Politics poll average. Meanwhile, a new poll of likely Florida Republican primary voters shows Cain now at 34% to Romney’s 28%, with former frontrunner Texas Gov. Rick Perry falling to a distant fourth at 5%, behind former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who was third with 11%.

— Robert Stacy McCain




 

UPDATE: Linked at Fire Andrea Mitchell — thanks!

UPDATE II: Michelle Malkin on Twitter:

UPDATE III: Headline from The Washington Post:

Mitt Romney attracts new support as donors
and elected officials coalesce behind him

Hmmm. Kinda like how the Establishment lined up behind Dede Scozzafava, isn’t it? And Herman Cain is Doug Hoffman in that analogy.

UPDATE IV: “Say it ain’t so, Marco.”

UPDATE V: “Rubio, Rubio! Wherefore art thou Rubio?”

UPDATE VI: Linked by Finrod at Red State — thanks! — and Bob Belvedere at Camp of the Saints, who wonders if Rubio is “crossing over to the Dark Side?”

UPDATE VII: Linked by Maggie’s Notebook — thanks! — and Da Tech Guy sees Team Romney replicating the errors of Team Coakley. Meanwhile, getting linked by Allahpundit at Hot Air inspired me to leave this comment:

If this, indeed, an effort to secure Rubio’s slot as running-mate for Romney, has anybody else noticed that (a) Herman Cain’s top campaign staffers are from Wisconsin and (b) Paul Ryan praised the 9-9-9 plan today?
IYKWIMAITYD.

PREVIOUSLY:


Category: Election 2012, Florida, Herman Cain, Marco Rubio, Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Tea Party

Comments

127 Responses to “Top Rubio Staffer Reportedly Pushed for Early Florida Primary to Help Romney”

  1. Marco Rubio Staff Heavy with Former Romney Staffers: Rubio Campaign Behind Early Florida Primary? | Maggie's Notebook
    October 13th, 2011 @ 8:12 pm

    […] The Other McCain (please read the entire story here) – the following is only a snippet: “Cesar used to be with Romney’s campaign,” one informed source explained to me in an interview today, adding: “Conda used his contacts to push the primary to the 31st because they want Romney in.” […]

  2. James Knauer
    October 13th, 2011 @ 8:13 pm

    I think we’re already here.

  3. James Knauer
    October 13th, 2011 @ 8:21 pm

    George Allen was one of the first casualties of  information politics. Pols for aeons have been used to white-lying it through untold podunk towns with no underlying data network to connect it all together for folks.  One word — Macacaca — did him in.  It was the early days of something “going viral.”

    It also unseated the Clintons, who took it like champions.  It allowed the ‘net in general to vet Sarah Palin because lord knows no one else had.

    Information politics are not done unseating politicians.  Once the effort grows more sophisticated, it will a valuable tool in fighting corruption that requires zero dollars expended for regulation.

  4. Anonymous
    October 13th, 2011 @ 8:37 pm

    Speaking of Paul Ryan, Daily Caller posted an article this evening that entitled Paul Ryan ‘loves’ Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan.  Great reporting, thanks to your source. 

  5. Richard Mcenroe
    October 13th, 2011 @ 8:45 pm

    Sorry, but according to Ace of Spades she bought a quart of  milk from a state owned dairy or something, so she’s tainted too.

  6. Anonymous
    October 13th, 2011 @ 9:03 pm

    Also, she has “negatives,” or something.  They like that word. It only seems to apply to Palin, but hey, it’s the new way to think.

  7. Anonymous
    October 13th, 2011 @ 9:19 pm

    I’ll just jump in here late with a half-a$$ed, “I told you so” -ish comment.

    I’ve pointed out here and several other places that Rubio has been someone who always seems to be a little aloof when it comes to the Tea Party.  Yes, he spoke at a rally or two.  Yes, he made some great-sounding speeches in the last few years–speeches that always seemed to stop well short of enunciating actual Conservative platform ideas.

    As I’ve said, he seems to be working hard to become a lifetime Senator, and not an idea-framing, philosophically-based champion of restoring our Constitution.

    He’s like Reagan without ANY of the “A Time To Chose” specifics.  Hollowing out Reagan that way (no, it’s different from how Obama flat-out abuses all forms of analogy when referring to Reagan) makes me feel queasy about the man.

    I want to like the guy.  His success story is one all immigrants should look to for motivation.  But he seems like a man working to his own agenda of power politics, and not like a Rand Paul sort of guy who lays it on the line, politics be damned (no, I am not a fan of the senior Paul).

    Cain has a little of that going for him, as well. Where Palin, Santorum, and Bachmann (and Newt, too) point to specific principles of Conservative thinking, Cain prefers to skirt the issue by claiming we need a “problem solver.”

    I like Cain more than Romney or Perry, but we don’t just need a good steward, we need a captain who knows where the hell we should be going.  We had a good, possibly great, steward in George “W” Bush.  Look where we ended up.

  8. Edward
    October 13th, 2011 @ 9:22 pm

    If this is true then Rubio is dead to me.

  9. JeffS
    October 13th, 2011 @ 9:29 pm

    True dat!

  10. Lions
    October 13th, 2011 @ 9:40 pm

    Marco is an interesting guy, incredible speaker whose words really resonate because of his parents ordeal and his to a certain extent. Marco was a bit of outsider when fighting the Crist debacle but he owes or is beholden to Jeb Bush. I never really looked at Rubio as a Tea Party candidate because of this and he really never embraced the Tea Party movement, he just benefited. We all won that round. This does not surprise me at all, these guys are all connected to each other. They don’t like the Tea Party because we stay informed and try to find out what is going on. They all including Rubio don’t like  “We the People” involved they much prefer to do business under the mantle, thanks Stacy for pulling the mantle off and revealing who is who. More please. They are rats aren’t they. God give us strength.

  11. Anonymous
    October 13th, 2011 @ 9:57 pm

    I’m not a Republican, and I never call anyone a RINO.  Sometimes I’ll use the acronym in a joke.  But I don’t give a damn about RINO-ism.  I only caucus with Conservatives to push back against the left.  As far as I’m concerned, “Republican” types are the problem, so the RINO label has no meaning.

  12. Finrod Felagund
    October 13th, 2011 @ 9:58 pm

    I’m having second thoughts about the implications of this for Rubio.

    I think it heavily depends on whether Rubio knew about this while it was going on, or whether it’s something his staffers did on their own.

    If it’s the latter, then Rubio has at worst some bad judgement for choosing staffers; which is a fault many decent Republicans have had.  But if it’s the former, I can’t see him ever being fully trusted by the base after this.
     

  13. Report: Marco Rubio’s top aide pushed to move Florida primary up to benefit Romney « Hot Air
    October 13th, 2011 @ 10:12 pm

    […] R.S. McCain reports, you decide. Here’s a good test of Rubio’s grassroots cred: Can you employ a man who’s trying to tilt the electoral pinball machine towards Romney’s nomination and still retain pride of place as a “tea-party icon”? GOP sources in Washington and Florida say that Rubio’s senatorial chief of staff, Cesar Conda, has been a major force in persuading Florida Republicans to move their primary to January. […]

  14. Anonymous
    October 13th, 2011 @ 10:13 pm

    When a fish lands in your lap, it takes the right kind of guy to realize that it might look a lot better with breadcrumbs and butter. 

    The rest all just go, “ewwww, a fish!”

  15. rain of lead
    October 13th, 2011 @ 10:27 pm

    linked at hot air

    http://hotair.com/

  16. Anonymous
    October 13th, 2011 @ 10:41 pm

    Why?
    One mans pessimism is another’s stranglehold on reality, we don’t call em infernal optimists for nothing.

  17. Anonymous
    October 13th, 2011 @ 10:43 pm

    Mr. Mcain, If this story holds up then you’re getting a donation from me.  5 or 10 $.  If you do PayPal and if I remember.

    Great job. I’m going to come to this site more often.

  18. anthony
    October 13th, 2011 @ 10:48 pm

    You are right on.    Rubio is way to close to the Bush wing of the party.    

  19. Karl Rove: Herman Cain Can't Sustain Momentum - The POH Diaries
    October 13th, 2011 @ 11:07 pm

    […] Let’s hope this unsettling news about Marco Rubio’s staffer is not […]

  20. Anonymous
    October 13th, 2011 @ 11:25 pm

    a huge slap in the face  to  the Tea Party by Rubio if hes behind this.Between Romney trying to steal this election,and Cains praising of Greenspan and his crappy 9-9-9 plan,Rick Perry is looking more and more appealing.

  21. Anonymous
    October 13th, 2011 @ 11:28 pm

    Rubio never really endorsed the Tea party. He just used them by using language that covered tea party and evangelicals.   All to his advatnage.

  22. Anonymous
    October 13th, 2011 @ 11:33 pm

    You forgot the obligatory:

    (*gestures slowly with hand*)

  23. Dagny
    October 14th, 2011 @ 12:17 am

    The media not only decides who we should vote for, they also tell the grassroots which candidate is a tea party candidate.  Rubio cannot be picked as a VP nor as a Presidential candidate until he proves that at the time of his birth, his parents were citizens.  Even though the constitution does not define ‘natural born’ there is still evidence of what the founders meant by ‘natural born’ and Rubio doesn’t fit the bill.   However it appears that both party’s are helping to shred the constitution blatantly and without any remorse.  I’d rather not vote at all than vote for a Romney/Rubio ticket.   Additionally, considering the disgusting way that the media is  treating Ron Paul, I would vote for anyone other than the candidates that the Pravda US media endorses or supports.   The media, including FOX news, the GOP, and the elitists are picking the winners because they think that the voters are just too stupid to realize that we do not really have any choice in the matter.  Both the Democrats and the Washington Republicans share multiple agendas, like globalization.  People need to look into Cain’s associations.  Cain has links  to the Bilderbergs from serving on boards such as Whirlpool. If any of these candidates are elected, for the exception of Ron Paul, we will have open borders with Canada and Mexico.  That is just the beginning.

  24. Maggie@Maggiesnotebook
    October 14th, 2011 @ 12:19 am

    Important story Stacy. Can’t wait to see the fall-out. Candidates cannot be happy about these early primaries. Thanks much for the link. 

  25. Adjoran
    October 14th, 2011 @ 12:23 am

    You shoulda seen him before his knuckles went . . .

  26. Max Twain
    October 14th, 2011 @ 12:24 am

    Wow, so Marco might support Mitt. TRAITOR!

    Wait, Cain did too……oops. 

  27. Adjoran
    October 14th, 2011 @ 12:25 am

    That’s going to seriously reduce the pool of candidates if we start excluding the dumb ones.

    You thought the dumb guys mucked it all up?  Get a load of the “smart” guys in the Obama Regime.

  28. Adjoran
    October 14th, 2011 @ 12:27 am

    When it gets to the point where every Republican looks like a RINO to you, maybe it should tell you something, eh?

  29. Adjoran
    October 14th, 2011 @ 12:37 am

    I think we should separate the fact of WHAT someone may have done – push for the Florida primary to move up (exactly as was done in 2008, ‘member?) – and the speculation of WHY they may have done it.  Because without a LOT more info, we have no real idea of the guy’s motives beyond what Stacy’s anonymous source suggested.

    But, heck, this is Today’s Conservative Movement (Motto:  “We Eat Our Own and Like It!”) so hanging Rubio on the basis of speculation of the motives of a staffer by an unnamed source is Frontier Justice, Baby!

    It’s a darned miracle we ever win an election.

  30. Anonymous
    October 14th, 2011 @ 1:05 am

    Perhaps you missed my point or maybe I need to articulate more better.
    There is no such thing as a RINO, when a Republican disappoints us by abandoning the Conservative positions they said that they adhered to when they needed our votes, it’s our fault for believing them.  When a Republican betrays conservatives they are merely being what they are.

  31. MrPaulRevere
    October 14th, 2011 @ 2:46 am

    Eh tu, Marco?

  32. Karl Rove Says Herman Cain Campaign ‘Not Gonna Have a Nice Ending’ : The Other McCain
    October 14th, 2011 @ 2:46 am

    […] phone calls to D.C. and Florida, a few minutes of online research, and I had an exclusive: “Top Rubio Staffer Reportedly Pushed for Early Florida Primary to Help Romney.” Perhaps not the kind of story Matt Drudge would consider worthy of a banner headline, but a […]

  33. Mike
    October 14th, 2011 @ 3:22 am

    Correct me if I’m wrong but just a few weeks ago, when you were pushing the “down with Florida” rant against Senate President Haridopolous and House Speaker Cannon, didn’t you claim that they engineered the early primary to help Governor Perry. Now it’s Marco!™ or one of his staffers that was behind the move?
    Hell, I’m all in favor of doing ANYTHING that will help Romney. I know you don’t agree, because you’re a maverick and voted Bob Barr (don’t blame me™), but any slightly leftward shift for Romney would be buoyed by a more starboard tack by a tea-party House and Senate, am I not correct? 
    So again, why do you always want to plotz when discussing the possibility of Romney as the nominee.

  34. Anonymous
    October 14th, 2011 @ 4:25 am

    I’ll take, “Because he’s a statist, flip-flopper” for $100, Alex.

    You could take advantage of a nice feature of this blog, where handy links appear at the end of articles helping you avoid embarrassing assumptions.

  35. Watercooler Chat – TGIF | Palin4America
    October 14th, 2011 @ 4:36 am

    […] No! Rubio! (ok, totally expected […]

  36. Anonymous
    October 14th, 2011 @ 5:20 am

    I’m a little under the weather and can’t give it the proper James Earl Jones treatment.

  37. Anonymous
    October 14th, 2011 @ 7:41 am

    Part of this move was started, I suspect, back when the Romney people suspected that Palin was going to run. Moving Florida forward was a very effective way of forcing Palin to stay out of the race.

    I was always an advocate of Palin getting in the race earlier than she wanted to, and now you know why. She was outmaneuvered by a far more experienced campaign over at Team Romney. 

    She’ll learn from this. But it just goes to show you that in this business, you can trust no one. Oh, and hesitation kills.

  38. ThePaganTemple
    October 14th, 2011 @ 7:42 am

    RSM. Paul Ryan wouldn’t be worth a crap as VP running mate, which is traditionally meant to be an “attack dog” role. Can you see Ryan do that? We need not one, but two attack dogs this cycle, which is probably the best reason among many, by the way, to have almost anybody but Romney, though Huntsman would be even worse. I want somebody in both roles that will go for Obama’s jugular and rip the little son-of-a-bitch to shreds. Sorry, that ain’t Ryan. For that matter, its not Rubio. I want somebody brutal.

  39. Anonymous
    October 14th, 2011 @ 7:43 am

    I’m actually quite surprised that Marco would want on the Romney train, since Mittens could quite easily lose to Obama, thus leaving Marco as damaged goods.

  40. Anonymous
    October 14th, 2011 @ 7:44 am

    Marco is Jeb’s guy. Marco was always Jeb’s guy. Marco will always be Jeb’s guy.

  41. Anonymous
    October 14th, 2011 @ 7:45 am

    BTW, nice reporting job, Stacy. Earned your pay today.

  42. ThePaganTemple
    October 14th, 2011 @ 7:46 am

    I’ve been saying forever that the Tea Party conservatives are the real RINOs, when you look at the long-term history of the GOP. We should take the damn rhinoceros as our proud symbol.

  43. ThePaganTemple
    October 14th, 2011 @ 7:49 am

    It would be the start of his 2016 campaign.

  44. ThePaganTemple
    October 14th, 2011 @ 7:50 am

    I don’t know about always, but I caught on a while back that Jeb has taken him under his wing. How long that’s been going on, who knows?

  45. ThePaganTemple
    October 14th, 2011 @ 7:51 am

    It doesn’t matter whether his parents were citizens or not, so long as Rubio himself was born on American soil, he’s automatically considered an American citizen.

  46. ThePaganTemple
    October 14th, 2011 @ 7:53 am

    Which is another reason I have reservations about Cain.

  47. ThePaganTemple
    October 14th, 2011 @ 7:56 am

    If I ever find out for a fact he did that, I’ll not only not vote for the bastard, I’ll vote, and campaign for, Obama.

  48. BigGator5
    October 14th, 2011 @ 7:57 am

    I’m at a total and completely loss for words on this, if true, story. I honestly do not want to believe what i am reading. I think I am going to be sick.

  49. Bob Belvedere
    October 14th, 2011 @ 7:59 am

    It’s bad enough he sends me e-mails containing naked pictures of himself with the subject line:* OT, But…*

  50. ThePaganTemple
    October 14th, 2011 @ 9:07 am

    Everybody, if this does turn out to be true, take it as an object lesson. Any politician, no matter how much you might like the person, is only a human being at his or her core, not some kind of angelic being that can never do any wrong. The more you put these people on a pedestal, the easier you make it for them to gradually come to believe they can get away with all kinds of crap. Marco Rubio has been in Washington just long enough to have caught a whiff of the allure of the power and influence of Washington, and in the meantime all he hears from conservatives is that he’s the second coming. Then, on top of all that, he gets invited by Nancy Reagan to speak at the Reagan Library, while the Bush family has also taken him under their wing. What do you expect is going to happen?