Don’t plan on seeing Marco Rubio drop into Iowa anytime soon.
Or New Hampshire. Or South Carolina, for that matter.
The freshman Florida GOP senator won’t be doing any travel to early presidential primary states in 2013, one of his top political advisers tells The RUN.
“We’re not doing any early primary state travel in 2013,” said Rubio political adviser Terry Sullivan. ”That’s not what he’s focused on right now.”
Rubio, who has seen his standing in early state polling plummet in recent weeks as a result of his high-profile pitch for a bipartisan immigration fix, won’t be attending this Saturday’s Family Leader Summit in Ames, Iowa.
But Sullivan stressed that Rubio’s absence shouldn’t be considered a slight at the Family Leader.
He said Rubio’s no-early state policy was settled on earlier this year.
“You can’t even be in a contiguous state without there being some speculation in the news coverage,” he explained. “So even things that are worthwhile, we decided no. You do one and then it becomes a sliding scale.”
While ruling out any early state travel in 2013, Sullivan said it was too early to speculate about 2014.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who currently occupies the top slot of The CHASE rankings, isn’t on the Family Leader’s roster either.
But Paul adviser Doug Stafford said that’s only because he had a family conflict.
That makes Rick Santorum and Sen. Ted Cruz the big draws for Bob Vander Plaats’weekend,which The Iowa Republican’s Craig Robinson is plugging as the biggest political event in Iowa this year.
“There has not been an event, nor is there another event on the books for 2013 that will have a better line up,” he said, citing Santorum and Cruz.
When I asked whether Rubio and Paul’s absences would make the event less important, Robinson dismissed Rubio as a big draw in Iowa these days.
“A lot of conservative activists in the state are disappointed with his lead role in the immigration reform bill. Like [John] McCain, I don’t think its a deal-breaker but he needs to let the debate die down before its safe for him to come back to Iowa,” Robinson warned.
That may work out just nicely for Rubio, given the earliest Iowans are likely to see him again is when there’s snow on the ground.
Follow Dave’s blog at TheRun2016.com
