Rubio 2010 Senate campaign fined $8,000

WASHINGTON, April 30 (UPI) -- The 2010 Senate campaign of Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., was fined $8,000 by the Federal Election Commission for unallowable contributions, an FEC report shows.

Rubio has been mentioned, among others, as a possible running mate for presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

The FEC said in a report released Friday that Rubio's 2010 Senate campaign received "prohibited, excessive and other impermissible contributions totaling $210,173.09," The Miami Herald reported Sunday.

Several members of the Republican establishment have been vocal in their criticism of Rubio, backed by Tea Party activists and conservatives as a potential vice presidential candidate.

"He is not ready to be on a national ticket in 2012," former Pensacola Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough said on his MSNBC show "Morning Joe" before the fine was revealed. "He's not ready to be in the Oval Office. He's not ready to be vice president of the United States."

It wasn't the Rubio's first miscue, the Herald said.

In 2008, the Miami newspaper revealed that Rubio failed to properly disclose a home loan from a politically connected bank and appeared to have charged some personal expenses on a Republican Party of Florida credit card opened for political purposes.

The Herald and the Tampa Bay Times discovered Rubio double-billed taxpayers and the state GOP card $3,000 for flights, which he later reimbursed the state.

Late last year, a Rubio critic reported to the media the senator's Web site incorrectly said his parents fled Fidel Castro's Cuba when they actually fled when dictator Fulgencio Batista was in power.