As they shuttle between early primary states and their paid jobs representing constituents in Washington, the senators vying for the White House are missing a lot of votes and committee hearings.  Based on an analysis by C-SPAN, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has missed the most time from his day job.  Rubio made 219 of 339 recorded Senate roll call votes in 2015, or 64%. The Florida senator trailed two rivals for the Republican nomination: Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who made 76% of the roll call votes, and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who was present for 94%. All three are seeking the GOP presidential nomination.  Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a long shot in his quest for the Democratic nomination, was present for 311 roll call votes, or 91%.  On the trail, Rubio has faced intense criticism from some rivals for his absences from Washington. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a constituent of Rubio’s, has said Rubio should better represent Floridians and not miss votes to campaign. Donald Trump, the billionaire businessman and front-runner for the GOP nomination, has said Rubio has the “worst voting record in the United States Senate.”  Rubio has defended his voting record, saying in October that he didn’t like missing votes, but that “I'm not there because I'm fighting for the future of America” – a line that was ridiculed by some of his opponents.  When it comes to speaking on the Senate floor, Rubio didn’t fare much better, based on the C-SPAN analysis of video images.  Of the 156 days the Senate was in session in 2015, Rubio spoke eight times, about 5% of the total days. That trailed Paul’s 13 times (8% of total days), Cruz’s 19 times (12% of total days) and Sanders’ 37 times (23% of total days).
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