Carlos Curbelo keeps mum re 2010 attack on Marco Rubio

One might assume that Sen. Marco Rubio and Miami-Dade School Board Member Carlos Curbelo were thick as thieves.

But they were once enemies.

A negative attack on Curbelo financed by the campaign of Cutler Bay Mayor Ed “Mac” MacDougall reminds voters that the one-time political consultant used to work for former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and attacked Rubio when the two ran for Senate in 2010.

“His is a cunning and convenient conservatism that is inconsistent with his record,” Curbelo said back then, referring to Rubio.

At the time he was quoted in that Miami Herald in 2009, he was already working for then-Sen. George LeMieux, a Crist ally who was basically running the former guv’s failed senatorial campaign.

But has he changed his mind? Because Ladra is pretty certain that Curbelo wouldn’t say that about Rubio today, when he is fighting to get on the ballot as the Republican choice to go head to head with U.S. Rep. Joe Garcia in November.

Or was it really Curbelo who had a “cunning and convenient conservatism that is inconsistent” when he said that? In other words, was he just saying it because it would be a cunning and convenient way to get or keep the job with LeMieux?

Curbelo would not respond to any of her questions about his feelings about Rubio. “I’m not commenting on any attacks,” he texted Ladra. “You won’t get any reaction from me.”

He said to just use the comment provided by his campaign manager, Nicole Rapanos, to the Miami Herald.

“Carlos has been working to build and strengthen the Republican Party in our community since before he was old enough to vote, and he has a strong record of driving a conservative reform agenda as a policymaker,” Rapanos apparently said in a written statement.

But that doesn’t answer the questions I asked him via text, which were:

Did you really say that about Marco Rubio?
Did you have to say that as a staffer to get/keep your job?
What made you change your mind about him afterwards?
Do you actually have different feelings about him now?
Or do you still think his conservatism is cunning and convenient?
Do you still think, Mr. Curbelo, that Sen. Rubio has a cunning and convenient conservatism that is inconsistent with Republican values?

I think those are legitimate questions to ask someone running in the Republican primary. And I think anyone running for Congress ought to have the, um, wherewithal to answer such queries, even if they are “frivolous,” as Rapanos characterized the critique on Curbelo in her written statement.

But nada. He said he was not going to react to the negative mailer. I told him I wasn’t looking for a reaction to the mailer, but rather an explanation of his apparent switcheroo on the Senator. Nada still.

His supporters point to the fact that Curbelo’s campaign team includes Rubio’s nephew, his sister’s son. But doesn’t that make the fact that Rubio is the only member of the GOP establishment that hasn’t endorsed Curbelo even stranger? Doesn’t that make it seem like there is still some bad blood between them?

Rubio doesn’t endorse in primaries, one Curbelo fan told Ladra. It may be true that Rubio has played it safe in primaries before.

But this year, the Senator endorsed Iowa State Sen. Joni Ernst in an open seat, and, closer to home, Dr. Julio Gonzalez over Richard DeNapoli, former chair of the Broward County Republican Party, in the race for a House seat to replace State Rep. Doug Holder, who is termed out.

Maybe, just maybe, that’s because DeNapoli — who used to heckle Rubio at campaign events, by the way — was once a Crist ally, too.

Carlos Curbelo, Congressional district 26, Ed MacDougall

Carlos Curbelo keeps mum re 2010 attack on Marco Rubio added by Ladra on July 26, 2014
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