Rubio begins fundraising push for new PAC
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has already started fundraising for his new political action committee, the Reclaim America PAC. #
About a week ago, the conservative junior senator from South Florida started a leadership PAC aimed at electing conservatives to public office. In a fundraising email, Rubio says his goal is to elect “true conservatives … Republicans who will stand up to Obama, instead of with him,” CNN reported. #
Rubio’s political advisers told CNN “that means potentially taking sides in contested Republican Senate primaries nationwide”: #
“„“Marco’s one and only goal for Reclaim America is to help build a lasting conservative majority in the Senate,” Rubio adviser Todd Harris told CNN. “We’re not ruling out getting involved in primaries, but our main focus will be electing Republicans and defeating Democrats in the general election.” #
Rubio’s advisers also told CNN that “the legal groundwork for the PAC was patterned after Sen. Jim DeMint’s ‘Senate Conservatives Fund,’ which took sides in several contested Senate primaries during the 2010 cycle.” #
Leadership PACs, such as the one Rubio has created, have been found to provide a “major loophole” in lobbying rules. Lobbyists are able to give large amounts of cash to a PAC, but are not allowed to give that kind of money directly to politicians. ProPublica has reported that with these types of groups, “lawmakers are free to spend the leadership PAC money pretty much as they wish.” #
CNN reports: #
“„Unlike the traditional leadership PACs used by most politicians at the federal level, the DeMint and Rubio PACs are able to dole out larger, bundled contributions to Republican candidates. They can also run independent expenditure campaigns in support of a candidate. #
Though he denies having ambitions beyond the Senate, Rubio can also use the PAC to finance his own political activity and travel the country introducing himself to voters outside of Florida should he one day embark on a national campaign. #
The Florida Times-Union reports that Rubio has already started “sending out e-mail blasts asking for checks” for the PAC: #
“„“Help us elect regular, hard-working Americans who love their country enough to preserve the free market principles and precious liberties our founding fathers conceived–and for who so many have since sacrificed,” the blast reads. #
Watch a video of Rubio’s introduction to the PAC: #
