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Rubio lying low in Florida this weekend
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01/27/12 01:32 PM ET
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) will stay on the sidelines this weekend as the GOP presidential candidates make their last push ahead of Florida’s Tuesday primary.
Rubio addressed the Hispanic Leadership Network in Miami on Friday morning and taped the Republican weekly address for release Saturday.
But his office said he has no public events scheduled in Florida this weekend.
Rubio has declared he will not endorse before the primary and has denied that he is interested in the vice presidential slot. Nevertheless, he did play a role in the campaign process in Florida this week when he criticized a radio ad from Gingrich’s campaign that labeled Romney “anti-immigrant.” Gingrich’s campaign took down the ad after Rubio criticized it.
And Romney was quick to bring up Rubio as part of an attack on his GOP rival during Thursday night’s presidential debate.
“Sen. Marco Rubio came to my defense and said that ad was inexcusable and inflammatory and inappropriate,” Romney said.
But the freshman senator has fought back against impressions he favors Romney over Gingrich. He described both candidates as “pro-legal immigration." Romney has taken a tougher position on illegal immigration than Gingrich. It's a leading issue among Florida's Hispanic population, which is a large voting bloc in the state.
Gingrich’s campaign quickly deployed a surrogate to defend its candidate’s record on Friday morning, seeking to deflect any damage taken over the contentious immigration issue during Thursday’s debate.
“Newt Gingrich has been one of the foremost at advocates in the Republican Party for reaching out to the Hispanic community,” Rep. David Rivera (R-Fla.) told CNN. “The only candidate that has shown respect to the Hispanic-American community, at least for the most part, in this election is Newt Gingrich with the way he has humane and reasonable immigration policy, for example.”
In his speech Friday morning, Rubio said candidates should watch their tone.
"We must admit that there are those among us that have used rhetoric that is harsh and intolerable and inexcusable," Rubio said, as reported by The Miami Herald. "And we must admit — myself included — that sometimes we've been too slow to condemn that language for what it is."
Rubio’s plan to stay out of the campaign this weekend, just three days ahead of the primary vote, might be good news for Gingrich — though his support would be better. His opinion is expected to sway plenty of voters in the state, where about 1 in 10 likely Republican primary voters is Hispanic.
When asked whether Rubio on the ticket would make them more likely to vote Republican, 43 percent of Hispanic voters in the Sunshine State said yes in a poll released this week conducted by Univision and ABC News.
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