Sen. Marco Rubio has hired Jim Merrill, a key New Hampshire Republican organizer who ran Mitt Romney’s state primary campaigns.
Merrill will work in New Hampshire and the Northeast for Rubio’s Reclaim America Political Action Committee.
It’s a big win in the “insiders’ primary” game. Merrill is someone who knows the nation’s first primary state intimiately and successfully helped Romney to a 2012 primary win. Romney finished second to Sen. John McCain of Arizona in 2008.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush led a new Bloomberg Politics/Saint Anselm College New Hampshire poll, with 16 percent. Rubio was seventh at 5 percent.
Since Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, said on Jan. 30 he would not pursue another presidential bid, potential 2016 candidates have scrambled to engage his backers.
“Marco has always been well received in New Hampshire, and should he run for president, he would be very competitive there,” said Terry Sullivan, Reclaim America PAC’s director. “Jim certainly knows how to win in New Hampshire and in the Northeas.”
Rubio is among more than a dozen prominent Republicans seriously considering a 2016 bid.