Rubio in Iowa as questions grow about early-state efforts

A new advertisement from a super PAC supporting Jeb Bush is criticizing fellow Floridian Marco Rubio for missing national security hearings and votes.

The ad mentions that Rubio missed a briefing following the Paris terror attacks, and blasts him for being at a fundraising the same day as the San Bernardino attacks. And arguably another beneficiary is Rubio, who seems like a grizzled veteran at this point, which certainly won’t hurt his aspirations to become the Establishment candidate even though he’s a first-term senator and was seen as a tea-party bravo as recently as 2010.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, during a stop in Iowa, also questioned Rubio’s Senate attendance. Christie picked up on Rubio’s failure to vote on the year-end $1.8 trillion spending package, despite having stated he was opposed to it.

“He never showed up”. “Only in Washington could you have the guts to say I’m against something that you have a vote to vote “no” on and then just not go and then put out a press release after it gets passed to say, ‘This is why I was opposed to it'”. Christie said. “Dude, show up to work, and vote no. Show up to work and vote no. And if you don’t want to, then quit”. Rubio’s campaign staff says the event that had been set for Burlington over the noon-hour today will be rescheduled.

On Tuesday, Right to Rise announced another ad in Iowa accusing Rubio of missing a Senate meeting after the November terrorist attacks in Paris, a way of stoking Bush’s criticism of Rubio’s Senate attendance.

“There will be some chartering on the campaign’s plane on some of the stops to maximize the reach and some of it will be driving”, Rubio’s director of communications, Alex Conant, told ABC News.

In June 1998, Hicks bought the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball’s American League from George W. Bush, the brother of Rubio’s rival Jeb Bush.

Rubio, however, landed a major endorsement from South Carolina Senator Trey Gowdy.

A spokesperson for Christie did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Rubio shot back with a response that many observers believed severely damaged Bush’s attempt at a comeback.

“I think as we get down the stretch here, some of them get a little desperate and a little nasty in their attacks, ” Rubio said. “Someone convinced him that attacking me was going to help him win and he has a right to run whatever campaign he wants to run”. I don’t have a vote in the Senate. In New Hampshire, for instance, Christie is snapping at Rubio’s heels, with 11.5 percent support to Rubio’s 12.8 percent, according to the RealClearPolitics average.

Unlike Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who has set his sights on Iowa, or Bush, who is pushing hard in New Hampshire, Rubio continues to spread his time and money across the early states, showing no indication he will choose just one to make his mark.