Newt Gingrich's Bush-Rubio Hire in Florida Leaves Tea Party Cold

Don't expect much tea party love for Newt Gingrich's Florida campaign director, Jose Mallea.

While media reports credited Mallea with engineering Marco Rubio's Senate victory in 2010, one tea leader called that revisionist history.

"He did not have a lot to do with Rubio coming from behind. The tea party did all the heavy lifting in the beginning. Then after he had a solid lead we could never talk to Rubio," said the activist who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Mallea's connections to Jeb Bush's camp are seen as helping Gingrich with Hispanic voters, but that won't necessarily warm up the tea party.

Under Mallea's leadership, the Rubio campaign "never let him come on a single [tea party] conference call. Instead they sent aides. Then we finally said we did not want to talk to any of them until Rubio came on. Well, he never did," said the tea party executive.