Rubio's Lavish Rise to the Top

Worth Clicking: Blasts from the past wound Romney

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March 13, 2010

Rubio's Lavish Rise to the Top

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) couldn't ask for a better look at his Senate primary challenger's rise through the Republican party ranks.

A St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald investigation finds Marco Rubio (R) "was barely solvent as a young lawmaker climbing his way to the top post in the Florida House, but special interest donations and political perks allowed him to spend big money with little scrutiny."

"Rubio's high-roller political spending belies his image as an outsider riding a wave of antiestablishment fervor and gunning to knock off Crist for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination. A Times/Herald review of other legislators' committees shows they typically contributed far more to other candidates and reported vastly fewer credit card payments."

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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March 13, 2010