Rubio advisors telling Florida Republicans to start looking for candidates. [View all]

[RandySF]

Rubio's advisers have told party leaders that they should expect to recruit a candidate to run for his Senate seat in 2016, according to four people involved in the talks, who discussed the private conversation on the condition of anonymity because Rubio has not notified the National Republican Senatorial Committee of his plans.

At the same time, Rubio's team is preparing for a national campaign. His top political adviser and likely campaign manager, Terry Sullivan, has been recruiting operatives — including Jim Merrill, who ran Romney's New Hampshire campaigns and was at Rubio's side for a two-day visit to the state last week. Spokesman Alex Conant is leaving Rubio's Senate office this week to begin work at his political action committee.

"When you consider doing something like that, you can't just decide to do it and then start working," Rubio said. "You have to have conditions in place to move forward. Some of them are very similar to the ones we'd have to take anyway if we ran for Senate. Others are different."


http://news.yahoo.com/floridas-rubio-close-decision-presidential-run-081416772--election.html