Marco Rubio’s longshot Senate campaign may well be redeemed–if his party listens to him

Once Charlie Crist, Florida’s popular  Republican  governor, decided to seek his  party’s nomination  for  the open Senate seat left  by retiring Senator  Mel  Martinez, national  political outlets  stopped  covering his  challenger and earlier  primary entrant  Marco  Rubio, the former speaker  of the state House of  Representatives.  That’s  understandable–Crist  has  one of the highest  approval ratings of  any governor in  the nation  and is already  cruising to victory.  As late as  last  month, Crist  enjoyed an average approval rating of 67 percent of voters; a recent head to head matchup shows Crist beating Rubio by thirty-five points among likely primary-goers.

Yet despite the undeniably dim primary prospects that await him, Mr Rubio deserves the attention of his party as it reshapes its image.  Why? As Slate’s Christopher Beam reports, not only is he a rising Hispanic star in a party that is fast losing the Latino vote–he’s also one of the few Republicans putting ideas to the fore of the debate at all:

In 2006, Rubio wrote and published a book called 100 Innovative Ideas for Florida’s Future. It was the product of a yearlong campaign to get Floridians to submit their own ideas for government (and, of course, to elect Rubio). There were three criteria: The ideas had to be relevant to daily life, they had to focus on the future, and they could not “unnecessarily expand government.” The 1,500 submissions were whittled down to 100 concrete proposals, and the book became a template for his two-year tenure as speaker.

Beam goes on to explain the breakdown:

one-third of the suggestions deal with education, pushing policies that reward good teachers, punish bad ones, and incentivize academic success (Nos. 1-33). Rubio also offers up the standard free-market fare: expand access to private health care (Nos. 86-89), require a supermajority vote to raise taxes (No. 94), and make it harder to file tort claims (No. 92). Then there are the expected law-and-order provisions, like limiting the time convicted felons have to appeal their sentences (No. 46) and keeping sex offenders locked up for life (No. 39).

Some ideas do stand out as novel. Rubio proposes free parking or reduced tolls for hybrid cars (No. 76). He wants the state government to have a highly fuel-efficient fleet of cars (No. 77). He proposes cutting tuition for students who pursue careers that are experiencing shortages, like math, science, nursing, engineering, and teaching (No. 26)

The reader might have noticed that none of the aforesaid ideas is particularly  bold or new.  In fact, Rubio–as an author or campaigner–doesn’t offer anything fundamentally different than what is already supported by an average member of its base.  He sticks with the party on each of its bread and butter issues, opposing gay marriage, abortion rights, and President Obama’s stimulus legislation.  Indeed, his primary strategy is to position himself to the right of the moderate Crist, a stimulus supporter, in an effort to win such voters.

How, then, has Rubio captured the attention of those outside the party faithful?The same way, Beam writes, that 100 Innovative Ideas attracted input from those of different political stripes.

The most relevant aspect of the book may be not its contents but its method.  “It was as much a process as it is a product,” Rubio says. By asking for solutions rather than dictating them, “we were able to identify emerging issues before they made it into the newspapers or to the statehouse.”

The party whose national leaders seem so fond of invoking Ronald Reagan and criticizing Barack Obama would do well to take a lesson from a man who seems to have learned a lesson from both: voters, above all, are looking for someone to listen to them. If party bosses take heed, Rubio’s unfortunate Senate bid timing might well be redeemed by a more prominent future.

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