Hmmm … Marco Rubio adds “Long list of accomplishments” in Florida House to his campaign website

in 2017/Top Headlines by

In the aftermath of his disappointing fifth place finish on Tuesday night in New Hampshire,  the Marco Rubio campaign realizes that they need to address the growing concerns about his candidacy.

Although much has been made about how rattled he became during last Saturday night’s debate after a verbal takedown by Chris Christie, questions about his qualifications to be president also were raised to a new level in New Hampshire.

After Rubio-surrogate Rick Santorum stumbled on MSNBC’s Morning Joe when asked to name some accomplishments that Rubio has achieved in his political career, the campaigns for both Christie and Jeb Bush used that clip in an a devastating ad that ran throughout the weekend in the Granite State.

Apparently, Team Rubio realizes that they are vulnerable on the issue, because there is now anew post  on the campaign’s website called, “Marco Had a Long Record of Accomplishment in the Florida House.”

The section refers to how as House Speaker in 2006-2007 Rubio “balanced the budget without raising taxes,” and passed budgets with less spending than then Governor Charlie Crist or the Florida Senate wanted.

It lists his 100 percent ratings from the Florida Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business, as well as a quote from anti-tax activist Grover Norquist saying that Rubio was “the most pro-taxpayer legislative leader in the country.”

When he was House Speaker, Rubio published a book called 100 Innovative Ideas For Florida’s Future. The site lists how he was able to implement some of those ideas during his tenure, including on issues revolving around eminent domain, higher education, K-12 education, crime, small government and government transparency and executive power.

During his Senate campaign back in 2009, Rubio said that 57 of the 100 ideas had become law. PoliFact Florida called that comment “Half True,” claiming that only 24 of them had became law.

The Rubio campaigning is also urging supporters to re-tweet this statement, “Many people know about @marcorubio’s leadership in the U.S. Senate, but do you know about his Fla. House work.”

Mitch Perry has been a reporter with Extensive Enterprises since November of 2014. Previously, he served as five years as the political editor of the alternative newsweekly Creative Loafing. He also was the assistant news director with WMNF 88.5 FM in Tampa from 2000-2009, and currently hosts MidPoint, a weekly talk show, on WMNF on Thursday afternoons. He began his reporting career at KPFA radio in Berkeley. He's a San Francisco native who has now lived in Tampa for 15 years and can be reached at [email protected].