The rivalry between Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio just burst out into the open
The campaigns of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) publicly traded barbs Thursday over the reports, each trying to outdo the other over which campaign was thriftier and in better position going forward.
And Bush's son, Jeb Bush Jr., also dinged Rubio over a plethora of missed Senate votes, something for which the senator has faced increased scrutiny from both sides of the political aisle in recent weeks.
The biggest area of debate came over the campaigns' "cash on hand" - the money they had in the bank heading into the final fundraising quarter of the year. Money raised in the third quarter, and the resulting cash on hand, is crucial, because much of it goes into a ramp-up in advertising in key early-voting states.
The Rubio campaign said Thursday that it had almost $11 million cash on hand, a figure that would put him behind only Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.
But one report subsequently accused the Rubio campaign of "fudging" multiple numbers when describing its disclosure report. Another report pointed out the Rubio campaign's numbers misdirection.
The Miami Herald's Patricia Mazzei wrote that "when it comes to campaign finance, the devil is in the details." Indeed, digging into Rubio's numbers reveals a more complicated picture than what his campaign had laid out in the days and weeks before.
First, the FEC report shows Rubio raised approximately $5.7 million, when his campaign had said that number was $6 million. And second, Rubio only has that much cash on hand if his campaign is assuming that he'll win the nomination.
Here's the breakdown: Rubio has about $10.98 million on hand, according to the FEC filing. But of that, about $1.23 million counted toward the general election, meaning he can't use those funds during the primary. So his primary cash on hand ends up being more like $9.75 million.
The Bush campaign, meanwhile, had about $10.27 million cash on hand, according to the FEC filing. Only about $270,000 of that is earmarked for the general. So his cash on hand for the primary is about an even $10 million.
But the Rubio campaign had already trumpeted, in its press release summarizing its filing, that it started the year's final quarter with "more money in the bank than Jeb Bush for President and most other campaigns," a line that made it into many media reports.
Tim Miller, Bush's communications director, tweeted out a link to a story detailing the Rubio campaign's alleged "inflation" of its cash advantage. He added a dig at Rubio's budgeting skills:
"Is it a big difference? No. But little differences can add up," Mazzei wrote.
Saint Peters Blog's Peter Schorsch was less charitable.
"Compare this to Jeb Bush's primary cash on hand of $10,001,000 - about a $250,000 advantage for Bush - and you begin to get a sense of how willing Marco was to fudge the numbers to create the myth that his lean and mean campaign machine has more primary cash than Bush," he wrote.