Rubio stays on conservative message

Despite being launched into an early general-election campaign,
Florida Senate candidate Marco Rubio (R) continued to appeal to his GOP
base during a brief trip to Washington on Tuesday.

Rubio
arrived Tuesday morning for a one-day swing that included seven
fundraising-related events, a lunch with Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) — an
early backer — and several interviews with reporters.

{mosads}In
his public comments, Rubio continued to espouse positions that appeal
to the GOP base, even though he’s now effectively in a general-election
campaign against Gov. Charlie Crist, who announced last week he’s
running as an Independent, and Rep. Kendrick Meek (D).

Rubio’s
message will undoubtedly appeal to conservative donors and grassroots
activists. But recent polling has shown he will need to appeal beyond
the Republican base in order to win in November. Still, his campaign is
confident it can win over independent voters with his conservative
message.

“Independent voters overwhelmingly want a check and
balance,” Rubio advisers Todd Harris and Heath Thompson wrote in a
recent memo. “Marco Rubio’s message will resonate very well with
independent voters, while both Crist and Meek will be seen largely as
Obama rubber stamps.”

Meanwhile, Crist has moved toward the
center of the spectrum, vetoing a measure that would have eliminated
tenure for new teachers and instituted merit pay and appearing at
groundbreakings for projects funded by the stimulus program.

And
Meek has zeroed in on financial reform, which is popular with many
seniors who are otherwise disenchanted with the Democrats’ agenda.

Rubio, however, stayed with his conservative message.

During
one exchange with reporters in Washington on Tuesday, Rubio continued
to express support for offshore oil drilling, which several prominent
Republicans have disavowed in light of the disaster unfolding off the
coast of Louisiana.

On Monday, California Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger (R) announced he would no longer support a plan to allow
new oil drilling off the coast of Santa Barbara County.

And
Crist said during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday that
further offshore exploration “has got to be tabled, for sure.”

But Rubio said that drilling “has to be done in a way that’s safe.”

“I view it from an energy standpoint,” he said.

On
the New York City terror incident, Rubio came close to saying that
reading Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani-born American citizen, his Miranda
rights was a mistake. “It all depends on how they’re going to try him,”
he said.

But he did say it was problematic for a terror suspect to be given constitutional protections.

“Part of the problem with Miranda [rights] is that it prevents you from accessing information,” he said.

Rubio cited a situation in which a terror suspect has information that could prevent a pending attack.

“Nothing
should stand in the way of” getting that information from the suspect,
he said. “If they stop talking, people can die, so that’s the danger of
Miranda [as it relates to terrorism].”

Rubio took a similarly
conservative stance on immigration reform — despite trumpeting his
family’s immigrant history on the campaign trail. “I would prefer the
Obama administration focus on border security,” Rubio, the son of Cuban
exiles, said.

Regarding Arizona’s new statute mandating that
officers check a suspect’s immigration status if they believe he or she
is in the country illegally, Rubio refused to say whether he would
support a similar law for Florida.

“Florida’s in a different
situation; Florida’s not on the border with Mexico,” he said. “It’s not
simply an immigration issue.” Rubio called it a “public safety issue.”

“It was inevitable, because the federal government has failed to act,” he said.

A
Rasmussen Reports survey of likely voters out Tuesday found Crist
earning 38 percent support to Rubio’s 34 and Meek’s 17. The poll,
conducted May 3, had 11 percent of respondents as undecided.

The
Meek camp released its own assessment of the race, outlining an
argument that the relatively unknown congressman has room to grow his
support.

“Meek has tremendous room for growth,” wrote Abe
Dyk, Meek’s campaign manager. “There are twice as many undecided
Democrats as Republicans in the April 15 Quinnipiac Poll. Additionally,
in that poll, 73 percent of voters were not familiar enough with Meek
to take a favorable or unfavorable view of his candidacy — this
provides a tremendous amount of growth, especially among Democrats, 61
percent of whom were not familiar with Meek and are likely to support
the Democratic nominee.”

Dyk sounded confident about Meek’s chances.

“A
three-way race clearly helps — it puts us in a commanding position,”
Dyk told The Hill. He noted that several top Washington Republicans,
such as National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn
(Texas), had spent weeks trying to convince Crist not to run as an
Independent. “They wouldn’t have done that if they weren’t worried,”
Dyk said.

The Crist campaign did not respond to a request for comment.