Rubio May Run for Senate Reelection After All

Marco Rubio, Florida's ultraconservative junior senator, had decided to abandon running for a second term in the 2016 election when he threw his hat into the ring for the Republican presidential nomination.  Although he consistently outpolled his state rival, Jeb Bush, Rubio couldn't get past the insulting, off-the-cuff demagoguery of Donald Trump and his disturbing mass of followers.  So he's long been out of that race, and fellow Republicans have been urging him to reconsider his decision not to run again for the Senate.  He had held fast to his original plans until just a few days ago, when he expressed the possibility that he might run after all.  We'll find out sooner than later, since the deadline for filing to run is June 24, one week from now...

Back in 2010, Rubio coasted into office as a Tea Party-supported candidate while sitting governor Charlie Crist, who thought that being in the U.S. Senate was preferable and that he himself would coast into the seat being vacated by Mel Martinez, found himself greatly outpolled by Rubio.  So Crist instead ran in the general election as an independent...all that served was to take away votes from Democratic nominee Kendrick Meek and give honorary-teabagger Rubio the election with 48% of the vote...

This year, the main Republican candidates...a real-estate developer, two congressmen, and the lieutenant governor...are currently polling weakly against about half of those asked who say they are undecided.  I'm sure that if Marco Rubio decides to run to retain his seat, then he will receive more than enough support to win his party's nomination against this weak field.  On the Democratic side, the two main candidates are also congressmen: acerbic, controversial, and highly-partisan Alan Grayson and centrist, ex-Republican Patrick Murphy.  The latest Mason-Dixon poll conducted earlier this month has Murphy ahead of Grayson, 31% to 23%...with a telling 43% of respondents still undecided...

I never did support Marco Rubio politically and I don't want him continuing on as my senator.  I think, though, that if he does change his mind and decides to run, then he has a very good chance to be reelected.  On the Democratic side, Grayson bothers me with his rhetoric and combativeness...Murphy would be a better senator for this state and represent its electorate more truly than either his main Democratic rival or Rubio.  But it's still just June...who knows what will happen next week and in the months to come as we approach first the primary election on August 30 and then the general election on November 8.  And, of course, I'm not telling you or anyone else who to vote for...just try to make a rational choice, please...