Marco Rubio

Marco Rubio’s path to winning the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in Florida would not have been possible without the ardent backing of Tea Party activists. But you wouldn’t know that by listening to his victory speech Tuesday night.

The Republican candidate, who easily won the GOP nomination Tuesday and will face independent Gov. Charlie Crist and Democrat Rep. Kendrick Meek in November, thanked his wife, his parents and God during his victory speech. But he did not mention the Tea Party or thank the grassroots activists specifically.

Does this mean Marco Rubio’s general election strategy includes cooling down his Tea Party rhetoric?

“Marco Rubio owes his position to the Tea Party, the 9/12 groups and the other grassroots groups,” said Robin Stublen, a Tea Party activist who founded the Punta Gorda Tea Party in Florida. He said the notion that Rubio is moderating his Tea Party speak is “100 percent correct,” though admitted he still fully supports the Tea Party-backed insurgent.

In the Sunshine State’s unique general election this cycle — that includes a serious independent challenge — Rubio’s strategy is obvious: win over enough votes of moderate Republicans and independents who might be drawn to Crist while keeping the Tea Party energy on his side. Crist, the early front-runner, left the GOP to run as an independent in the race after Rubio became a Tea Party darling.

A New York Times reporter recently traveled with Rubio as he campaigned on the Florida panhandle and penned a profile of the former state House speaker, writing that Rubio “is trying to show that he is more than just an insurgent protest candidate—and he is breaking with some Tea Party orthodoxy in the process.”

Rubio’s campaign did not respond to multiple requests to interview Rubio or return requests to describe the campaign’s strategy going into the general election. Yet the always-on-message Rubio projected himself Tuesday night as a measured politician focused on presenting GOP alternatives, rather than as an angry Tea Partier without any ideas. “I am not running to be the opposition…I believe there is a better way to do things,” he said.

While other grassroots, conservative backed candidates have appeared to embrace the Tea Party label, Rubio often dodges the question of whether he considers himself a Tea Partier. Asked the question recently, he said, “I think there is a real misunderstanding about what the Tea Party movement is. The Tea Party movement is a sentiment in America that government is broken – both parties are to blame – and if we don’t do something soon, this exceptional country will be lost and it will become just like everybody else.”

He also, for example, has been non-committal about whether he’d join a Tea Party caucus in the Senate if elected.

Perhaps it’s an effective strategy, as Democrats have not been able to successfully portray him as outside the mainstream like they have done with other Republican Senate candidates this election cycle, like Sharron Angle in Nevada, Rand Paul in Kentucky and Ken Buck in Colorado.

But, at the same time, he’s certainly not abandoning the message that attracted the grassroots activists to his campaign. In his speech Tuesday night he told the assembled crowd that, “If you like the direction that America is headed, if you think Washington is doing the right thing, then there are two other people on the ballot and you should go for one of them.”

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Florida Election Results: Kendrick Meek Wins

Just when everyone thought he was out, Rep. Kendrick Meek pulled himself back in. After a brutal and expensive surprise primary challenge from billionaire investor Jeff Greene, the AP is reporting that Meek has won the prize he thought he had in his grasp months ago: the Democratic nomination for Senate in Florida.

With 38% of precincts reporting, Meek is leading Greene 55-32. Also-ran former Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre has 6% of the vote. Meek is now set to take the stage in a general election fight where, essentially, two men are vying for the Democratic vote -- Meek and Gov. Charlie Crist, who has run hard for Democratic support since abandoning the GOP primary against Marco Rubio.

Before we turn our attention to uphill climb Meek now faces against Crist and Rubio, we should take a moment to note the uphill climb he just completed. Meek was all but written off after Greene's barrage of negative advertising left the relatively unknown Meek down in the polls. But Meek battled back, taking on Greene with tough rhetoric in debates and pulling in help from powerful friends like President Clinton and President Obama. He ran negative ads of his own and likely was overjoyed as media attention quickly deflated the regular-guy image the flamboyant Greene tried to create for himself. Just as he did early in the primary cycle -- when his fundraising prowess cleared the field early -- Meek has shown that he is ready and willing to fight for the nomination.

Unfortunately for him, Meek just got what he's been wishing for.

Almost no one expects Meek to win the whole thing in November. The best that most observers say he can hope for is the role of spoiler, ending Crist's attempts to remake himself as a centrist Democrat and pulling off just enough of the base Democratic vote to hand Rubio a win in the end.

But Meek proved tonight he can overcome a candidate with more money and a lead in the polls. In his acceptance speech tonight, Meek characterized the general election fight as a battle he can win -- largely because he's the only real Democrat running.

"I am running against two conservative candidates that have similar records," Meek told supporters tonight. Meek said he was the only candidate carrying traditional Democratic values into the fall.

"I am the only candidate who supports a woman's right to choose and equal pay for equal work, has fought against privatizing Social Security, and will repeal the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% of Americans and cut taxes for the middle class," he said in a statement released by his campaign after the night was over. In his speech to supporters, he pointed out a number of issues where he has differed from both Crist and Rubio, including public support for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor (both Crist and Rubio opposed her nomination, though Crist supported Justice Elena Kagan's nomination after becoming an independent.)

The TPM Poll Average shows Meek running a distant third in the race. He's got just 16.8% of the vote. Crist leads Rubio at the top of the contest, 36.0-33.8.

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Rick Scott Wins

Rick Scott has taken the attention of the whole media towards himself by defeating the State Attorney General Bill McCollum in the recent Gubernatorial Elections. Tuesday was a nightmare for Bill McCollum when it was announced that he had been defeated by the Newcomer Rick Scott who did not knew any political methods of winning the elections. The win of this great personality was very close one and there was only a small difference of just 3 percent votes which were in his favor. Bill who had the support of many high profile politicians such as the former governor of Florida Jeb Bush could not win the elections. On the other hand Rick Scott who only had the support and the votes of the public won the elections.
From all the overall results it has been said that McCollum had 43 percent votes while Rick had 46 percent votes on his side. This victory has become a great source of happiness and excitement for Rick Scott.


According to the media Scott said that the voters now have the mind of their own as they have chosen the right person as their new politician. The elections in this State of Florida have become a good example of righteousness and justice as the people have made the right choice in selecting a capable politician. This narrow victory of Rick Scott has given a lot of confidence to honest politicians who know that they now have the support of the public who will not ruin their efforts.

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