Marco Rubio: Mormon!

It’s still too soon for Veepstakes – that game is supposed to be played in July – and, anyway, there isn’t a nominee yet. Still, Buzzfeed’s scoop that Marco Rubio was a baptised Mormon (and thus is likely still counted, at least by the church, as a member of the Church of Latter-Day Saints) is a proper new fact. It’s also a story that makes Rubio seem more, not less, interesting:

In the compelling personal narrative that has helped propel Florida Senator Marco Rubio to national political stardom, one chapter has gone completely untold: Rubio spent his childhood as a faithful Mormon.

Rubio was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with his family at around the age of eight, and remained active in the faith for a number of years during his early youth, family members told BuzzFeed.

Rubio spokesman Alex Conant confirmed the story to BuzzFeed. Conant said Rubio returned to the Catholic church a few years later with his family, receiving his first communion on Christmas day in 1984 at the age of 13.

The revelation adds a new dimension to Rubio’s already-nuanced religious history—and could complicate his political future at a time when many Republicans see him as the odds-on favorite for the 2012 vice presidential nod.