http://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/marco-rubio-2016-immigration-116926.html?hp=t2_rImmigration debacle dogs Marco Rubio
But even tea party critics say he’s contained the damage and it may not be a deal-breaker with GOP voters.
By Seung Min Kim and Manu Raju
4/14/15 5:42 AM EDT
Updated 4/14/15 8:31 AM EDT
The calls started coming from Republican Party honchos and prominent GOP senators right after Election 2012: The party had to start competing better for the Latino vote, and immigration reform was the place to start.
Sen. Marco Rubio’s political advisers weren’t so sure.
As a pair of deal-making Republicans deeply disliked by elements of the GOP base — Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham — were working with senators from both parties to draft an immigration bill, top Rubio hands flatly warned the Florida freshman not to go there. The advisers feared nothing would be worse for his chances in a potential presidential campaign than being associated with “amnesty” for the 11 million immigrants in the country illegally.
Rubio didn’t take the advice. And two years later, immigration remains the freshman senator’s No. 1 liability in his bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination — though not necessarily the deal breaker it appeared to be after the reform effort Rubio helped shepherd to passage in the Senate hit a brick wall in the House.
“Everybody likes Marco Rubio,” said Iowa conservative radio host Steve Deace, a nationally syndicated commentator. But “I still don’t hear his name from conservatives at all, and I think the Gang of Eight” — the bipartisan group of senators that pushed the most sweeping immigration overhaul in a generation — “has a lot to do with that.”
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http://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/marco-rubio-2016-immigration-116926.html#ixzz3XI7NDllU
