While Florida is the fourth largest state and a battleground every presidential election, neither of the major parties has ever included a Floridian on its presidential tickets. There are plenty of reasons for this -- Florida was a member of the Solid South after Reconstruction and took decades to develop, for example. But one of those reasons is that rising political stars from the Sunshine State quickly fizzle.
Take Fuller Warren, for instance. The photogenic and sharp Warren appeared to have it all. First elected to the Florida House at the age of 21, Warren went on to serve on the Jacksonville City Council and served in the Navy during World War II. Promising to get cattle offthe highways, Warren was elected governor in 1948 at the age of 43 and his future seemed limitless.
But Warrens star quickly faded. He may have risen too fast for his own good -- and penning a book entitled How to Win in Politics did little to convince Floridians that the young governor was more concerned about actually governing than about his own ambitions. Even worse for Warrens ambitions, he was involved in a libel lawsuit against Colliers magazine and he was connected by U.S. Sen. Estes Kefauvers committee looking at organized crime and mob bosses. After leaving office, Warren ran again for his old job in 1956 and lost in the Democratic primary.
Another rising star from Florida faded when he angered the people who put him in power in the first place. In 1966, Claude Kirk became the first Republican to win a gubernatorial race since Reconstruction, by running on a law-and-order platform and painting his Democratic opponent, Miami Mayor Robert King High, as an out-of-touch liberal. Kirk appeared headed to a bright national future -- and he certainly was interested.
The buzz grew that Kirk would be a perfect vice presidential candidate for the Republicans in 1968. But he didn't take Richard Nixons political resurrection seriously and ended up backing Nelson Rockefeller, the bane of conservatives, for the Republican presidential nomination. A border state Republican governor -- Spiro Agnew of Maryland -- ended up on the ticket with Nixon. Conservatives never forgave Kirk for backing Rockefeller and he had a tough primary fight in 1970 before losing to Democratic challenger Reubin Askew that November.
During his two terms, Askew himself looked like a rising national star, but the man had awful political timing. After Watergate, the nation wanted an outsider as president and turned to a Southern governor with a reputation for character and integrity -- but it was Jimmy Carter and not Askew. When Askew made his own bid for the White House in 1984, he floundered badly, losing big in the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary.
Fast-forward to the present as Marco Rubio prepares to take his place in the U.S. Senate, while the buzz grows that the Florida Republican could be a presidential or vice presidential candidate down the road.
Rubio sent out an e-mail to supporters on Friday promising to continue to stand up for the conservative positions he espoused on the campaign trail.
For nearly two years, I campaigned on the promise to go to Washington, stand up to a big-government agenda that threatens to diminish our country and offer an alternative that will help secure the American Dream for future generations, wrote Rubio to his backers. Over these past two years, you supported me and, in doing so, propelled our shared vision of limited government, fiscal discipline and free enterprise to victory."
He continued, Although the campaign is behind us, it's important that we not lose our focus or abandon our grass-roots efforts to spread our message and encourage our friends and relatives to support the legislation I will be fighting for to tackle the debt, repeal and replace Obamacare, and turn our Ideas to Reclaim America into policies that make a difference in your lives.
"Rest assured that when I take the oath of office next Wednesday, I will be doing so with gratitude to you for entrusting me with the responsibility of steering our state and nation through this challenging period. And I promise that I will work tirelessly to ensure that my children and yours inherit what they deserve -- the greatest country in all of human history.
Its a good start. Unlike Warren, Rubio seems to realize that politics is about more than getting elected and, unlike Kirk, he realizes that conservatives brought him to the dance. But the Sunshine State has seen rising stars before. One of the more interesting dramas in Florida politics in 2011 will be to see if Rubio will still be a rising star come 2012.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
