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Marco Rubio late guest at RNC's Nuestra Noche party

 
Published Aug. 28, 2012

The food was thin and the noise was furious in the fourth floor of Tampa's historic Cuban Club on Monday night for the RNC's Nuestra Noche party held by the American Conservative Union and co-hosted with the Republican State Leadership Committee.

Invitations promised appearances by Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush, and by 10:30 p.m. the party was getting restless. By 11 p.m. Rubio took the stage in front of a thinning crowd.

Earlier in the evening, with more than 5,000 tickets circulating, the intimate rooms bulged with delegates. Two hours of cocktailing with scant food — some delegates going rogue and grabbing platters of pizzettas — culminated in a nearly unintelligible video of Latinos and Latinas speaking about the American dream.

But then Tagg Romney and other Romney family members as well as Brian Sandoval, the governor of Nevada, and Susana Martinez, the first female governor of New Mexico took the stage and pledged to do "everything they could do to get Mitt Romney elected."

The party, which hadn't been scheduled to even begin before 11 p.m. before Tropical Storm Isaac shuffled the social calendar, was emptying out before reaching that hour Tuesday.