AUGUSTA, Maine - Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has joined the growing list of Republican candidates for president who have qualified to be on the March 5 Republican caucus ballot in Maine.
Rubio is the 12th candidate to file and pay the $10,000 qualifying fee. Maine House Republican Leader Ken Fredette, of Newport, filed the papers for the Rubio campaign.
"Maine's delegates are going to be just as important as anybody's, especially when you have 12 to 14 Republican candidates that are running for the presidency," Fredette says. "Every delegate is going to count, and I think Maine is going to be important to that process."
Fredette says he's convinced that Rubio is the best of the long list of candidates seeking the Republican Party nomination.
"Marco Rubio is the only truly intergenerational candidate," Fredette says. "Solid conservative, somebody who served as speaker of the house in Florida - he knows how to get stuff done when he was where. Also served six years in the Senate."
Only former New York Gov. George Pataki has yet to qualify for a spot on the caucus ballot.
