Rubio Really Going For It?

It appears that former State House Speaker Marco Rubio is seriously going to challenge Governor Charlie Crist for the Senate seat being vacated (leaving before he gets kicked out) by Mel Martinez.

Most of us assumed he was just dithering around until Charlie jumped in the Senate race and that Rubio would then find some slot opened by the mad scramble that the 2010 edition of the “Tallahassee Two-Step” promises to be.

But, lo, we wrong.

I think.

Rubio raised approximately $250,000 for his senate exploratory committee in the first quarter of 2009.

Granted, he still needs another $20 million to run a competitive Senate race in Florida, but it’s still early.

I am not saying that I think Rubio is going win anything next year, but that $250,000 came from some hard work and it’s money that he cannot transfer into a state account (should he decided to run for Governor or Attorney General or the like). Maybe he really does intend to run to the right of ol’ Charlie and see if the socially conservative base of the GOP is willing to give him some love.