Marco Rubio
Marco Rubio

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has just about wiped out Vice President JD Vance’s lead among Republican voters to land the 2028 GOP presidential presidential nomination, according to an Emerson poll conducted in late May.

Thirty-six percent of respondents back Vance, while 35 percent like Rubio. That’s a huge swing since Emerson’s February poll that showed JD clubbing Marco by a 52 percent to 20 percent margin.

Rubio, 54, is benefitting from keeping a low-profile on the quagmire that is Iran, while Vance has been updating America on the elusive deal to end the conflict.

The Floridian, who was first elected to the Senate in 2010, comes across as possessing the most gravitas among the members of Trump’s cabinet at the expense of 41-year-old JD. There’s a perception that Vance, who became Ohio’s Senator in 2023, needs more seasoning.

Cuba could disrupt Rubio’s rise to the top of the GOP ticket. The son of Cuban immigrants has always maintained a hard-line against the island’s government.

Rubio claims Cuba is a failed state and national security threat to the US because of its security and intelligence ties with Russia and China.

Though he prefers a diplomatic solution to the differences between the US and Cuba, Rubio can’t rule out military action.

There’s little support among Republicans for invading Cuba. Emerson found 57 percent opposed, 23 percent for, and 20 percent not sure.

Cuba will make or break Rubio’s political future.

Justice for Robert Levinson… BGR Group and Ballard Partners are representing the Levinson family, which seeks $1.5B in damages from the government of Iran.

Robert Levinson, a retired FBI and DEA agent, was abducted in Iran 19 years ago while on a job for the CIA in his capacity as a private investigator.

Ballard and BGR describe their work as providing “strategic counsel and advocating on issues related to recovery of assets by a foreign government notwithstanding judgements by courts.”

The FBI continues to offer a $5M reward for information that leads to Levinson’s location, recovery, and return.

Its agents, analysts and professional staff continue to develop new leads and intelligence in hopes of resolving this case, according to a statement released March 9, the eve of Levinson’s 78th birthday.

The FBI believes “Bob’s family justifiably continues to demand answers” and “calls on Iran to return Bob’s remains and reveal the truth about his abduction, captivity and probable death.”

Good luck to Ballard and BGR.

Larger-than-life PR guy. Robert Daley, who was the NYPD deputy commissioner for public affairs and author of 31 books, died on May 26. He was 96.

After a stint as publicist for the NFL New York Giants, Daley took the PA job in 1971, which was a tumultuous time for corruption-riddled NYPD.

The Department also had to deal with the assassination of four of its officers by Black nationalists, the shooting of Mafia boss Joe Colombo and a $1M jewel heist at the Pierre Hotel.

Overseeing a staff of 35, Daley cut a daring figure. He had a driver and radio car, packed a .38 caliber revolver, showed up at crime scenes and bantered with reporters to the dismay of commissioner Patrick Murphy.

He lasted a year on the job. After Murphy canned Daley for “differences of opinion,” he wrote a book, “Target Blue: An Insider’s View of the NYPD.”

In her New York Times review, Mary Perot Nicholas called Daley “an incurable romantic with a warped view of his place in history. He is the first public relations man in the Police Department’s history to conceive of himself as the tail that wags the dog.”

R.I.P. Robert.