Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will endorse Marco Rubio over Gov. Charlie Crist in Florida’s Republican Senate primary more than two years after Crist helped crush Romney’s presidential aspirations by endorsing rival John McCain.

Romney plans to announce the endorsement Saturday and campaign with Rubio in Tampa on Monday, according to a Romney adviser who asked to remain anonymous because the official announcement has not been made.

Romney is the third major 2008 presidential candidate to endorse Rubio. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee have also endorsed the former House speaker. Giuliani, who endorsed earlier this month, was also counting on a Florida victory during the 2008 campaign and now says Crist backed out of a promised endorsement.

Crist and Rubio both sought Romney’s endorsement, the adviser said, but Romney believes Rubio has a stronger conservative record and is an idea-driven leader. Romney was also disappointed that Crist vetoed a teacher merit-pay bill this week that was a high priority for Republican lawmakers and former Gov. Jeb Bush.

Romney’s PAC is contributing the maximum $5,000 allowed to Rubio’s campaign. In 2006, Romney flew to Tallahassee as head of the Republican Governors Association with a $1 million check to help Crist’s run for governor.

In 2008, Romney and McCain were in a tight battle for Florida with Romney slightly ahead in polls leading up to the primary. Crist endorsed McCain just three days ahead of the election and some political observers believe it was enough to give McCain the win, which he used to build momentum and capture the nomination.

Romney is often mentioned as a potential 2012 presidential candidate. By backing Rubio, a favorite of conservatives, Romney could endear himself to Republican voters who were uncomfortable with his moderate stands on abortion and gay rights when he ran for office in Massachusetts.

The Rubio campaign said it would not comment on the endorsement until after it’s made. The Crist campaign didn’t immediately respond to e-mails seeking comment.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/16/mitt-romney-to-endorse-ru_n_540936.html

Former state House Speaker Marco Rubio continues to lengthen his lead over Governor Charlie Crist in the contest for Florida’s Republican Senate nomination.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely Republican Primary voters finds Rubio leading Crist by 18 points, 54% to 36%. Four percent (4%) prefer some other candidate, and seven percent are undecided.

Those figures reflect a five point increase in support for Rubio compared to a month ago. Support for Crist has changed little over the past month.

In December, the two GOP hopefuls were tied at 43% apiece. The new findings mark Rubio’s best showing to date and Crist’s worst. The good news for Crist is that Florida Republicans don’t pick their nominee until an August 24 primary.

Crist, an early favorite in the race, was the choice of the party establishment but angered conservatives when he was one of the few Republicans to embrace President Obama’s $787-billion economic stimulus plan. Rubio, initially a long-shot contender, was quickly embraced by the so-called Tea Party movement, and Crist’s support has been falling ever since. He was at 53% in August but fell to 49% in October. Since then, a number of prominent national conservatives have endorsed Rubio’s candidacy.

In the state’s general election content, both Rubio and Crist have large leads over likely Democratic nominee, Congressman Kendrick Meek. Rasmussen Reports will release new numbers on the overall Senate race tomorrow.

Rubio now carries male GOP voters by a two-to-one margin but break even with Crist among women. The governor also breaks even among moderate Republicans, but conservatives in the party favor his challenger now by more than 40 points.

It’s telling that Florida Republican Primary voters are now evenly divided over Crist’s performance as governor. Forty-eight percent (48%) approve of the job he is doing, down eight points from January, but 49% don’t approve. Those numbers included eight percent (8%) who strongly approve of how Crist is governing and 20% who strongly disapprove. Keep in mind that those figures are among Primary Voters in the Governor’s own political party.

Fifty-four percent (54%) of likely primary voters have a favorable view of Crist. This marks an eight-point drop from the previous survey. Sixteen percent (16%) now view him very favorably. Forty-four percent (44%) of Republican voters in the state now have an unfavorable view of the incumbent GOP governor, including 14% whose view is very unfavorable. Only two percent (2%) have no opinion of him.

Read more at Rasmussen Reports

“In a world where others have lost their liberty by trading it away for the false promises of the state, we choose to hold to our founding principles. We will stop these power-seekers where they stand,” he said at CPAC.

In the book, Romney will have a framework for his vision, Schriefer said. “He now has a touchstone – I don’t think he had that yet going into ’08,” he said.

Romney also took time to lash Obama’s struggling health care legislation as everything from bureaucratic to unconstitutional. But where his advisers see a man able to pick his spots, critics see a candidate forced to avoid an issue that has shaped the conservative movement.

“I think some people would say he hasn’t been above the fray, that he’s been hiding from the fray,” said Alex Castellanos, a Republican adman and adviser to Romney’s 2008 campaign who is no longer part of his circle. “The biggest issue in America for the past year has been what he used to tout as his signal accomplishment, and unfortunately Mitt Romney was nowhere to be found.”

FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey, a central figure in the conservative revival, also said he saw Romney’s Massachusetts health care plan, an early model for Obama’s attempt at expanded health care, as a central weakness. “What he caries with him is that Massachusetts plan and it’s a big problem,” Armey said.

Romney, with his perfectly-honed presentation and hidden weakness, recalls for some Hillary Clinton, a juggernaut until Iowa’s caucus-goers decided they didn’t quite like or trust her enough to make her president, and Romney rivals like Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty have taken pains to remind voters of the resemblance between Romney’s health care plan and Obama’s.

Romney’s aides deny he’s avoiding the subject.

“Gov. Romney has been very visible on health care. He’s written op-eds on the subject, he devotes an entire chapter to it in his new book and he addresses it in nearly every interview,” said his spokesman, Eric Fehrnstrom, who also argued that unlike Obama’s plan, Romney’s didn’t raise taxes, and that he supported state rather than federal plans.

They also say that Clinton wasn’t brought down by a single issue, but rather by a broader distrust from her party’s base, the very thing Romney has so effectively repaired.

“These things don’t come down to individual issues,” said Schriefer. “They come down to a sense of the person in whole.”

At CPAC, Romney received standing ovations, and banged the podium and absorbed the applause with the comfort of a man at home. The movement, once deeply suspicious of him, may not have fallen in love at first sight, and Romney’s appearance lacked the buzz of CPAC’s new star, Florida Senate candidate Marco Rubio. But the deep comfort inside the movement with the man introduced as “Mr. Fix-It” may be enough.

“I don’t know the last time I heard anybody say ‘I’m a Romney guy,’” said Armey. “But I don’t know that I’ve heard anybody disparage Mitt Romney either.”

Read more at Politico