Love the Senate

Rubio learns to love the Senate

‘A couple times I’ve wondered, “Boy, if we had a couple more years, we could really get some stuff done,”’ he says.

By Marc Caputo and Burgess Everett

Marco Rubio sure isn't acting like a guy who hates the Senate.

Two months after he quit the presidential race, as he heads into the twilight of his single term in the chamber, the Florida senator is showing signs that the job that once deeply frustrated him isn't so bad, after all. Bashed on the campaign trail as a vote-skipping truant, Rubio has become a constant, active presence in the chamber — leaning on fellow Republicans to cough up money to combat the Zika virus and strong-arming the White House in a foreign-policy deal in the past few weeks alone.

Today, Rubio says he is “150 percent” committed to being a senator and, by all appearances, having a great time. So much for the idea that Rubio “hates” his day job, as one alleged friend anonymously described the senator's attitude last year.

“A couple times I’ve wondered, ‘Boy, if we had a couple more years, we could really get some stuff done,'” Rubio told POLITICO, displaying some misgiving over what might have been.

"Seniority is really a big deal in the Senate. The longer you’re there, the more influence you have,” added Rubio, who will leave office in January. “I regret that I won’t have the opportunity to be in a position of seniority, where you have the chairmanship of a committee.”

Unlike Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, his former presidential primary rival, Rubio decided he wouldn’t hedge his bets by running simultaneously for reelection and president. He could technically still hop back in the race for his seat but says he won’t — much to the GOP’s chagrin.

Florida polls indicate he’d be the strongest candidate to keep this seat in a presidential election year, when Democrats and liberal-leaning voters tend to outnumber Republicans. Florida is one of seven top-tier races that will determine party control of the Senate next year.

If Rubio runs for office again, it will likely be for president in 2020, assuming the early polls are right and that Donald Trump or Ted Cruz becomes the GOP nominee this year and loses to Hillary Clinton. He’s said he won’t run for governor.

In interviews in Miami and Washington, Rubio made clear that Florida issues are more important to him these days than delegate counts. He’s letting the GOP primary play out and has sworn off joining the ticket as a VP pick. He’s not sure what job he’ll take in January but knows he won't be a lobbyist or work on Wall Street. He can’t wait to be a full-time dad at home in West Miami and use his boat more often.

With some regret, Rubio, who turns 45 later this month, said he’s been fishing only twice since he dropped out of the race after Florida’s March 15 primary.

Rubio said he’s focused on what he can do now. He’s soaking up the next eight months and the myriad opportunities they present to be a power player in U.S. politics and his state.

The day after Trump drubbed Rubio in Florida, the senator’s staff was preparing a new legislative agenda to make sure he finished strong. But before chief of staff Alberto Martinez could talk to him about it, Rubio called to say he’d be back in his Washington office the next day, Thursday, with his own agenda in hand.

Rubio’s staffers gathered in the halls to applaud him as he walked back into work that morning. Rubio took it in for a brief moment before instructing his staff with a smile: “Get back to work.”

“Since I’m not running for reelection, there’s a lot of things I want to get done. I’m actually enjoying it very much. It’s kind of been the most enjoyable and productive I’ve been,” Rubio said recently as he strolled back to his Senate office.

Rather than leverage his star power to offer incessant cable news punditry on Trump and Cruz, these days Rubio is a fixture on the Senate floor. He’s urging aid for fiscally beleaguered Puerto Rico and joining with President Barack Obama (and bucking his own party) in calling for $1.9 billion in federal funding to fight Zika, which the senator says Floridians are “freaked out” by. He’s becoming more involved in Everglades funding and a proposal to crack down on U.S. benefits for some Cuban refugees.

Most dramatic was his role in the recent confirmation of Roberta Jacobson, the new U.S. ambassador to Mexico. For more than six months Rubio had blocked her, refusing to relent even as he was traveling the country in search of votes.

But upon returning to Washington, Rubio flipped the switch.

After weeks of negotiations, he agreed last week to clear the way for Jacobson in return for a White House promise to extend sanctions connected to Venezuela’s regime — an important issue in South Florida, where some Venezuelan government officials are suspected of parking potentially ill-gotten gains in the region’s real estate market.

Rubio also challenged his own party last week to stop blocking the White House’s funding request to combat Zika, which is spreading in Puerto Rico and has been linked to the death of an elderly man as well as microcephaly in infants. The virus is of particular worry in Florida because of its abundant mosquitoes and because, as Puerto Rico’s economy continues to collapse, an estimated 1,000 families move to Florida from the island monthly, increasing the risk that Zika will spread more quickly to the mainland.

“Mosquitoes don’t ask for your voter registration card before they bite you and potentially infect you,” Rubio said.

“We’re going to fund Zika. It’s either going to happen now or it’s going to happen in response to a crisis. So it’s going to happen,” he added. “It’s starting to cut through that a growing number of my colleagues on the Republican side are starting to understand that we need to be part of a plan and have a solution.”

His stance is his most overtly bipartisan play since his failed bid for immigration reform in 2013, and he’s once again drawing praise from Democrats — words that would have been unheard of a few months ago, when they believed Rubio was the top threat to Clinton. They blasted him for abandoning the Senate, missing votes, failing to support a Puerto Rican debt-relief bill and backing away from his immigration proposal. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Rubio should resign because he “hates the Senate.”

Rubio called the idea that he hated the Senate “false” and said he would have taken Reid’s advice if it were so.

“Just because you run for president doesn’t mean you hated the Senate,” Rubio said.

Rubio’s renewed involvement in the day-to-day business of the chamber has his colleagues wondering what might have been. As he showcases his effectiveness as an eloquent and strategic senator, it’s become harder for them to watch him go.

“He spends a lot of time studying these issues. I don’t think people have observed that,” said Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.). “He’s a real player here, and I’m going to miss him.”

That’s especially true because Rubio’s departure has put the Florida seat very much in play for Democrats this fall — in a year when one state could decide which party controls the Senate next year. Republicans openly admit he’d make their job much easier if he were to run again.

“Oh, yes,” said National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Roger Wicker of Mississippi. “He’s an incumbent with all the advantages of an incumbent.”

It’s not yet clear what role Rubio will play in the campaign to replace him. He nearly endorsed Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera in March and is hosting a fundraiser for him at the NRSC, but he has yet to make it official ahead of the Aug. 30 primary.

Rubio declined to speculate on whether Trump, who lagged far behind Clinton in a recent Florida poll, will hurt his party’s chances to keep the seat. But the senator who’s always been described as a rising star in his party seems content with how he will be remembered after he leaves.

After all, he says, few in Congress can brag about passing major legislation these days.

“I feel positive about being able to get good results down the stretch. None of them are the kind of things that will dominate headlines,” Rubio said. “I’m honored to serve in the Senate. I’ve enjoyed my work there, despite the lack of progress in the process.”

“I wish I knew six years ago,” he added, “what I know today.”