People who follow politics a lot (and if you’re reading this, that includes you) think of lawmakers mostly for the bills they write, the votes they cast, the speeches they give, and the campaigns they run. Maybe you’re even aware of their committee work.
But much of what goes on in the typical congressional office is correspondence with constituents (letter-writers complaining or asking for the lawmaker’s position on such-and-such). And then there’s the case work. Someone needs help with their disability or veterans benefits claim. Somebody wants a letter of recommendation for their application to one of the service academies, help with a federal permit or something of that nature.
In a big state like Florida, a senator needs offices in several of the major cities to do this sort of thing effectively. And Marco Rubio’s office in Tampa, where he has two staffers who do work for constituents in several nearby counties, is being kicked out as of Friday because of the protesters who have been occupying the space outside every week since the 2016 election.
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.
“A professional office building is not a place for that,” Williams said. “I understand their cause, but at the end of the day it was a security concern for us.
Rubio is now faced with the prospect of going without a brick-and-mortar office until a new location can be found…The staff needs to leave Suite 530 by Friday and does not have a new location lined up. Negotiations with another building recently fell through.
There’s no question the protestors have a right to be there. And the protestors themselves say in this Tampa Bay Times piece they didn’t intend for this to happen. (They may underestimate how obnoxious they seem to innocent bystanders.) They even say that Rubio’s two staffers have been polite and accommodating to the ones who have set appointments and come in.
But you’d think there are better things to do than hassle two of a lawmaker’s low-level staff until his landlord evicts their office from its building. Like, for example, go volunteer for the local Democratic Party. Or get a job.
