On October 5, a $1,000 donation that former Bush political guru Karl Rove made to Florida Senate hopeful Marco Rubio gained a lot of attention. The donation, not accompanied by any grand public statement of endorsement, did show that Rove had "signaled his preference" in the competitive GOP primary between former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio and current Florida Governor, Charlie Crist.
Following the donation I tweeted the following:
I have a feeling @KarlRove's donation to @MarcoRubio had more to do with this than anything else: http://bit.ly/41v3AO
The link led to a story, published in the final days before Charlie Crist was elected Governor of Florida, detailing how Crist stood up then President Bush who was in Florida to campaign for Crist. Crist's no-show was a political calculation that obviously peeved then White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove.
Rove's obvious distaste for Crist after this event led me to personally believe that Rove's donation to Rubio in October of this year was more of a swipe at Crist than it was an endorsement of Rubio. Even as recently as three days ago, Rove mentioned the Rubio donation but steered clear of a hearty endorsement. But as this tweet Rove sent last night shows, Rove appears to be solidly and publicly behind Rubio's candidacy:
When I asked Christian Camara (@reaganista) what sparked the Twitter reply from Rove about Rubio, Camara said, "I really don't know. I tweet pro-Marco material all the time, so who knows which one he saw that piqued his interest. It truly was unsolicited."
For us Twitter watchers, this makes the whole story a little more interesting. Camara had not mentioned anything about Rove, yet Rove found something that interested him and took the time to tweet the solid endorsement for Rubio. Looks like Rove is paying more attention to Rubio than we all had previously thought.
This is the first tweet sent from Rove regarding Rubio and from what I can tell, the first true "statement" from Rove on Rubio's candidacy. This endorsement will be an important one for conservatives in Florida and across the country as they continue to rally around Rubio's effort to defeat Crist. At the end of the day, Rubio supporters are most concerned about one endorsement that could change everything in this race - the endorsement of Rove's former boss' brother - Jeb!
UPDATE: In response to a link Patrick Ruffini tweeted last night to this post, Karl Rove has responded to the question I posed at the beginning of this post - Is Karl Rove going all in for Rubio? Rove's response via Twitter:
For us Twitter watchers, this makes the whole story a little more interesting. Camara had not mentioned anything about Rove, yet Rove found something that interested him and took the time to tweet the solid endorsement for Rubio. Looks like Rove is paying more attention to Rubio than we all had previously thought.
This is the first tweet sent from Rove regarding Rubio and from what I can tell, the first true "statement" from Rove on Rubio's candidacy. This endorsement will be an important one for conservatives in Florida and across the country as they continue to rally around Rubio's effort to defeat Crist. At the end of the day, Rubio supporters are most concerned about one endorsement that could change everything in this race - the endorsement of Rove's former boss' brother - Jeb!
UPDATE: In response to a link Patrick Ruffini tweeted last night to this post, Karl Rove has responded to the question I posed at the beginning of this post - Is Karl Rove going all in for Rubio? Rove's response via Twitter:
Re: Rubio—Yes: thoughtful, principled, true leader who looks 4 constructive conservative solutions that r outside the box.
