Senator Marco Rubio has been having some problems with his personal finances which could present a problem for him in a vice presidential vetting process.
Rubio owes far more on his $384,000 Miami home than it is worth, and at times has had difficulty paying his mortgage.
He bought the home in 2005 for $550,000 with a $495,000 mortgage. He soon had it appraised for $735,000 and took out a second mortgage for $135,000.
In 2008, despite earning a declared $400,000 - including his $300,000 salary from the Miami law firm Broad and Cassel - Rubio failed to make a payment on his home for several months, according to Florida campaign finance disclosures.
During the same period he did not make payments on a $100,000-plus student loan from his days at the University of Miami, the disclosures said.
Apparently he also got in some trouble for using a credit card issued by the Florida Republican Party for personal reasons, and had to pay them back.
How can you earn $400,000 a year and still be unable to pay your mortgage and student loans? Where was all the money going? I hope someone will do a little more looking into that question as it could be, at the very least, quite a bit of fun to read.
Feel free to conjecture below.
Updated: Well, this started as an idle post out of a newspaper story, but a tiny bit of looking around finds a few questions. There appear to be some suggestions out there that he may have had a relationship (of what kind I do not know) with a health care lobbist, Amber Stoner.
Here's a question for Marco Rubio - his credit cards had at least 10 charges for flights under Amber Stoner's name (image here)
She checks in at his office on Foursquare a lot
Did he help buy her a house?
So - that is what the rumor mill seems to be saying. I have no idea whether there is anything to it or whether it is related to his financial issues.
12:26 PM PT: You can see the charges on his credit card here:
http://news.jacksonville.com/...