Sen. Marco Rubio and his Tampa staff are (allegedly) looking for new office space after the owner of their current space is refusing to renew the month-to-month lease:
The owner of Bridgeport Center, a gleaming, nine-story office center at 5201 Kennedy Blvd., notified Rubio's office on Feb. 1 that it will not renew its lease. The reason: The rallies have become too disruptive to the other tenants and a costly expense for the company, said Jude Williams, president of America's Capital Partners.
Rubio’s staff seems a little salty about the move:
In a previous statement on the demonstrations, Rubio's office said the Tampa location has two employees and serves a number of counties, "yet they have met with dozens of these liberal activists."
"This is nothing more than a strategy outlined in an online activist manual to carry out 'mass office calling,' " the statement said. "Their goal is to flood offices with calls and emails and then go to the press and claim they aren't getting a response."
Ah, there is another name for those activists coming to see you every day: constituents. And they wouldn’t have to come out every Tuesday, or make individual appointments throughout the week if Sen. Marco Rubio would do his job and meet with them to hear his concerns. After all, he was home last week and was seen running from his constituents despite telling them he would be out of the country. Constituents aren't happy the office is closing:
Indivisible Tampa co-founder Michael Broache said the demonstrators never intended to get Rubio kicked out of his office.
"Our intention is to make sure the senator hears our voices and acknowledges the concerns of his constituents," said Broache, 32. "Unfortunately, we've requested town halls and he's indicated he's unwilling to do that at this point, so that's why we've been present."
In the meantime, there is no longer a Tampa office. How convenient, right? Sen. Rubio wants constituents to actually phone it in using a constituent line 1-866-630-7106. I’m sure they’ll get back to you never, Florida residents. Good luck with that voicemail.