Via twitter from @MarcoRubio: Pulling over off I-95 to do interview with Greta on Fox News from Daytona Speedway @10:30. Tune in.

11 county Republican straw polls — 11 wins for Marco Rubio over Charlie Crist.

But this one was different.

The fact that Crist lost in Pinellas County, which he represented in the state Senate and where he’s lived nearly all his life, can’t be a good sign for Crist.

This is another in a string of positive events for Marco Rubio. Nearly unknown and trailing significantly in the polls just a year ago, Rubio’s conservative message has energized party faithful and impressed those less politically aware.

One common, if anecdotal, theme is that Rubio stands out because of his beliefs, but also because of how genuine he appears to be.

I wish more politicians understood this:

Scott Brown in his debate with Martha Coakley. (h/t Gina Cobb)

He also had a pretty good day fund raising, ending the day with over a million dollars.

The Democrats from the bluest state in the nation have to be in panic mode. To actually win this seat every star will have to align perfectly, not a high odds bet. Still, it could happen and, whatever the outcome, it will be a quite a indicator of conservative chances in the rest of 2010.

A pair of Democratic Senators will not be running this fall.

North Dakota’s Byron Dorgan made the announcement yesterday.

North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan stunned fellow Democrats when he decided not to seek re-election this fall and swung open a race that Republicans are convinced will help the GOP dent the Democrats’ fragile majority in the Senate.

Today Connecticut’s Christopher Dodd will announce his retirement.

Trouble-plagued Connecticut Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, who has for months been considered the most vulnerable Senate incumbent seeking re-election this year, will announce Wednesday that he is ending his bid for a sixth six-year term, a Democratic source confirmed.

Dodd will make the announcement at a press conference at his home in Connecticut.

I guess this moves Harry Reid up to the “the most vulnerable Senate incumbent” spot. Unless he wants to join the departure parade.

Yesterday I wrote about the group of conservative leaders who were questioning the constitutionality of the health reform bill. South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, along with Nevada’s John Ensign, has raised a Constitutional Point of Order on the Senate floor.

“I am incredibly concerned that the Democrats’ proposed individual mandate provision takes away too much freedom and choice from Americans across the country,” said Senator Ensign. “As an American, I felt the obligation to stand up for the individual freedom of every citizen to make their own decision on this issue. I don’t believe Congress has the legal authority to force this mandate on its citizens.”

“Forcing every American to purchase a product is absolutely inconsistent with our Constitution and the freedoms our Founding Fathers hoped to protect,” said Senator DeMint. “This is not at all like car insurance, you can choose not to drive but Americans will have no choice whether to buy government-approved insurance. This is nothing more than a bailout and takeover of insurance companies. We’re forcing Americans to buy insurance under penalty of law and then Washington bureaucrats will then dictate what these companies can sell to Americans. This is not liberty, it is tyranny of good intentions by elites in Washington who think they can plan our lives better than we can.”

As part of their reasoned objection to the bill, they rely on analysis from the Heritage Foundation.

This “personal responsibility” provision of the legislation, more accurately known as the “individual mandate” because it commands all individuals to enter into a contractual relationship with a private insurance company, takes congressional power and control to a striking new level. Its defenders have struggled to justify the mandate by analogizing it to existing federal laws and court decisions, but their efforts do not withstand serious scrutiny. An individual mandate to enter into a contract with or buy a particular product from a private party, with tax penalties to enforce it, is unprecedented– not just in scope but in kind–and unconstitutional as a matter of first principles and under any reasonable reading of judicial precedents.

Congress has a responsibility, pursuant to the oath of all Senators and Representatives, to determine the constitutionality of its own actions independently of how the Supreme Court has previously ruled or may rule in the future. But it is very unlikely that the Court would extend current constitutional doctrines, or devise new ones, to uphold this new and unprecedented claim of federal power.

There will be a vote on this later today. Tell your Senator that you expect them to uphold their constitutional oath and vote against this unconstitutional pile of garbage.

One big issue with the Health Power Grab bill is the individual mandate which requires, with penalties for non-compliance, American citizens to purchase health insurance. There’s just one problem — there is no power granted by the Constitution that allows this.

Quin Hillyer posts a memo put out by a group of major leaders of the conservative movement.

ISSUE: Mandating that individuals must obtain health insurance, and imposing any penalty-civil or criminal-on any private citizen for not purchasing health insurance is not authorized by any provision of the U.S. Constitution. As such, it is unconstitutional, and should not survive a court challenge on that issue. Supporters of the legislation have incorrectly contended that the legal justification for the mandate is authorized by the Commerce Clause, the General Welfare Clause, or the Taxing and Spending Clause. Given that this mandate provision is essential to Obamacare; its unconstitutionality renders the entire program untenable.

The memo lays out the legal arguments that explain the bill’s unconstitutionality. The writers call for the following:

ACTION: We urge you to make this point to members of the U.S. Senate-and if a bill passes the Senate to impress upon members of both chambers of Congress-that the key provision in the healthcare legislation violates the U.S. Constitution.

Let your legislators know that you oppose this bill. It is not too late.

Florida Senate candidate Marco Rubio is going to be the keynote speaker at CPAC.

CPAC Director Lisa De Pasquale made the announcement on the conference’s Twitter feed.

“We chose Rubio because he is an upcoming leader. He is someone that a lot of people are excited about,” De Pasquale told POLITICO. “His name keeps getting brought up and we decided that he would be a good keynote for 2010.”

He is an excellent choice. As Allahpundit said at Hot Air:

It’s an easy pick because there’s no pol in America aside from Sarahcuda whom the base is more excited about, and he needs this exposure a lot more than she does. It’s essentially a huge, free advertisement for his Senate campaign with all the earned media that goes along with that. And of course it’s a great advertisement for conservatives too: He’s young, charismatic, and a minority, which makes him almost the polar opposite of the standard media caricature of right-wingers.

My guess is that the crowd at CPAC is going to love this choice. He is extremely popular with party activist, going 12-0 in straw polls, winning most by huge margins.

The race between Rubio and Crist is being touted as an indicator of conservative sentiment and power. CPAC may give Rubio the name recognition he needs, and then the real test can begin.

Senate candidates Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio appeared at the Alachua County Republican Party’s 7th Annual Ronald Reagan Black Tie and Blue Jeans BBQ. Laura Ingraham was the keynote speaker.

Rubio gave the event’s invocation, but first made comments along his campaign theme of being the race’s true conservative.

“It’s very simple: We already have a Democratic Party in America,” he said. “We do not need two Democratic parties in America.”

Crist gave a speech running through a long list of positions to prove his conservative bona fides, from support of gun rights to tax cuts. But he received a less enthusiastic greeting than Rubio from the grassroots activists in attendance, even getting a small smattering of boos.

This scenario, minus the candidates, has been playing out at county events all summer. Rubio’s support, at least as indicated in straw polls held among party activists, has been outstanding. On possible reaction to the NY-23 special election may be for the NRSC to stay out of this critical primary.

One can only hope.

Marco Rubio on yesterday’s Morning Joe.

Here are my thoughts and observations about last nights town hall meeting with Fl-12 rep Adam Putnam. Driving up I was greeted by Public Option Now signs lining the entrance and parking lot. There were around a dozen public option supporters handing out material just outside the doors.

I would estimate between 150-200 people in attendance. The dress ranged from I-just-came-from-work to I’m-retired-and-this-is-what-I-wear. A good percentage appeared to be retirement age.

Adam started his remarks by saying that there are four major issues facing Congress, but I missed the fourth, and he didn’t really elaborate on the last one. Those three — Cap and Trade, Card Check, and of course, Health Care Reform. He called them “game changers,” a major shift from the way we do things as a nation.

Before taking questions he listed some of the things that he thinks should direct the debate on health care:

• Greater access
• Afforadability
• The individual, along with their health care professionals, should be the ones to make medical decisions
• Government should not limit choices
• Private insurance should remain the foundation

He had one very interesting statistical note on the expatriation rates of doctors by country. Canada has a rate above 10% and the UK is above 5% (sorry, I didn’t get the exact number). The US rate is 0.6% and most of those are doctors which have decided to go on the mission field. The numbers for nurses are similar. There is a reason that medical professionals trained here practice here.

He spent several minutes talking about how much the US spends on equipment, research, and innovation. One stat – MRI Machines: In the US there are 25 MRI machines per million people. In Canada and the UK that number is 5 per million.

One big issue is how difficult it is to project future health costs. He cited the huge difference between original CBO projections for Medicare and Medicaid and the quickly realized realities.

One point he made that I thought was particularly important, and often under discussed, is the effect federally implemented plans will have on state budgets. The impact could be a budget buster for many, if not most, states.

His suggestions for the discussion:

• Association Health Plans – where groups of people, bound by some association, could purchase insurance at group rates typically reserved for companies. Perhaps we could have the “Bloggers Health Plan”
• Malpractice Reform
• The ability to sell plans across state lines
• Electronic Medical Records. He called this the area where there is the least partisan disagreement.
• Incentivize wellness and fitness
• Small business tax incentives

He remarked that mandatory coverage of pre-existing conditions without mandated participation for all can not co-exist.

He also touched on the timing of things in Congress. The House leadership has expressed a goal of bringing HC to a vote before Thanksgiving, although he believes that it may extend through the end of the year, or into early 2010. In any case, he said the issue is on a short time line. Because of the focus on HCR, he thinks that Cap and Trade and Card Check will be pushed off until early next year.

I wasn’t able to stay for all of the Q&A portion, but I did stay for the first few.

The first question got quite a bit of positive reaction from those in attendance.

Q. Is it constitutional/legal/possible for Congress to pass a bill that is not in it’s final legislative form?

A. He said that the bill, in it’s present form, is in many ways conceptual. There are at least three separate versions that are being melded in the House. The version that is eventually voted on, however, will have to be specific and final. He took the opportunity of this question to say that it is critical for the final bill to be available for people to see prior to Congress voting.

Q. This questioner likened what the government is doing as equivalent to being forced to support a particular charity.

A. His answer addressed the issue of cost in the bill, which currently range from $873 Billion to $1.3 Trillion. Cuts to Medicare could be $500 Billion. One method of revenue generation under discussion is a VAT on medical devices and a surcharge of 2.5% on people making $250,000 or more. One option is to change the surcharge to 5% on those making a $500,000 or more. He pointed out the fact that many of those in either scenario are small business owners. He made the point that these options would have the effect of costing small businesses more than Fortune 100 companies. He repeated the point that state governments will have to come up with more money as well. A lot more money.

The final question I was able to stay for:

Q. What about fraud in existing government programs?

A. Fraud, along with waste and abuse, are unbelievably high in existing programs. Florida is particularly bad. While eliminating or reducing fraud, waste, and abuse won’t solve all of the cost problems, they are important and costly factors.

It was interesting to attend, and I wish I could have stayed longer. While there was a significant presence of those supporting a public option, most questioners (of those I had the chance to hear) appeared to want government to leave us alone.

If anyone else was there and had a different view, or was able to stay longer, please let me know.

Larry Thornberry writes about the Florida U.S. Senate primary between Governor Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio saying, “Marco Gets It.” He had the opportunity to sit down with Rubio. Here’s a taste:

His answers to my questions give a feel for what kind of a conservative he is.

Larry Thornberry – The American Spectator: Why do you think your campaign is increasingly successful, both in collecting money and in better poll numbers?

Rubio: I think it’s because my candidacy offers Floridians the opportunity to decide that we don’t want to be the party of cap and trade, that we don’t want to be the party of stimulus, that in fact we want to send people to Washington who will stand up to the direction this administration is taking our country and offer a clear alternative. We already have a Democratic Party. We doesn’t need two Democratic parties.

The base is enthusiastic about our candidacy. An authentic center-right message, an authentic limited-government message is where the mainstream of American politics is. The extremists in American politics are the ones who want government to take over our economy. The extremists are the ones who want government to dictate energy policy. The extremists are the ones who want America to become more like the rest of the world and less like the exceptional country that we know and love. Those are the ones who are out of touch with everyday Americans. Those of us who believe government shouldn’t spend money it doesn’t have, who believe the government shouldn’t become so involved in the economy that it becomes impossible to open a business in the spare bedroom of your home, we’re in the mainstream of American thought.

Do read the whole post. The Rubio campaign website is here. You can follow @MarcoRubio on Twitter.

Conservative Senate candidate Marco Rubio is making serious inroads against Gov. Charlie Crist’s lead according to a new Quinnipiac University poll.

Gov. Charlie Crist’s lead over former state house speaker Marco Rubio in the 2010 Republican U.S. Senate primary has been cut in half from 55 – 26 percent to 50 – 35 percent, but the Governor tops the leading Democrat, U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, 51 – 31 percent among all voters, while Rubio trails Meek 36 – 33 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

Rubio continues to gain ground on the Governor and is extremely well thought of by Republican insiders and those who know him. He is 12-0 in straw polls, winning most by considerable margins.

You can follow @MarcoRubio on Twitter.