A prominent Sen. [crscore]Marco Rubio[/crscore] backer characterized former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s campaign as a retreating army intent on ultimately ineffective destruction, saying his attacks on Rubio will “only leave a bigger mess” to clean up.
“It’s like an army in retreat that’s been instructed to burn the bridges, blow up the air fields, destroy everything,” J. Warren Tompkins told The New York Times, referring to anticipated attacks from Bush leading up to the New Hampshire primaries. “It slows things down a little. But it only leaves a bigger mess for everyone to clean up.”
A strong showing in New Hampshire is key if Bush wants to hang onto what remaining support he has from the establishment. He’s expected to go after Rubio aggressively in the state leading up to the primary next week where His Right to Rise PAC has reserved $1 million of advertising time.
In a surprisingly strong showing at the Iowa caucuses Monday, Rubio nearly relegated Donald Trump to third place, but Bush was barely a factor, putting his status as the establishment pick in real jeopardy. Bush was forced to ask supporters to applaud him at a campaign stop in New Hampshire Tuesday, spawning a slew of embarrassing headlines and playing into the narrative his campaign is done.
Rubio has been quietly building a massive ground game in New Hampshire, looking to solidify the narrative the race is down to himself, Trump and Cruz. “I think their ground game has been kind of a hidden secret,” Massachusetts state Sen. Ryan Fattman told The New York Times. “Part of the campaign’s brilliance is not advertising everything it’s doing.”
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