I wrote about the Rubio flap for Politico today:

The Times led off its vetting of the Rubios with an exposé of their traffic tickets, perhaps because they couldn’t get access to their cable bill or recycling bins. The newspaper had to investigate both Marco and his wife in a transparent effort to boost the overall ticket count into something approaching minimal newsworthiness.
Marco has accumulated a grand total of four tickets in 18 years. Yes, four, a pace of one ticket every four or so years that won’t exactly shock the conscience in parts of the county where people drive all the time. It is the 13 tickets of Jeanette that gets the number up to a combined 17 citations, which might be a concern if first ladies were expected to do their own driving and rigorously honor the speed limit.
Jeanette was roped into the story on the Rubios’ finances so the Times could write, darkly, of the couple’s “inattentive accounting that led to years of unpaid local government fees.” It turns out that these were annual business licensing fees she failed to keep up with — and amounted to $637.50 (since paid).
If Jeanette Rubio has ever lied to a Starbucks barista about her name so it won’t be misspelled on the cup, or failed to silence her cellphone before a movie, it is sure to show up in The New York Times, eventually. She might as well ’fess up now.

Although I agree with my colleagues that this story won’t hurt Rubio (check out Eliana on the home page on this), I think there are two vulnerabilities: 1) If Rubio continues to be a top contender, there is no doubt that the Florida Republican party credit card thing will be thrown at him in negative ads at some point. It’s just too easy. 2) The unease about Rubio, given his youthfulness, will be that he’s somehow unsteady. The financial story could play into that negative narrative about him at some point, especially if he gives it more oxygen with some rocky moments on the campaign trail.