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"But talk about spending good money after bad: I think anybody that invested in John Kasich right now is investing in Enron after its collapse," Marco Rubio senior adviser Jason Roe said. | AP Photo Rubio aide: Backing Kasich is like investing in Enron post-collapse

Marco Rubio's campaign fired back Wednesday at a memo circulated by John Kasich's team on Tuesday night, with one senior adviser remarking that it would be like investing in Enron after its collapse.

In the memo, Kasich senior strategist John Weaver characterized Rubio's performance in Nevada as "disappointing," writing that Rubio delivered a disappointing return on investment for his donors and suggested that the Florida senator unlikely to improve in future contests.

"Republicans are now left to wonder whether investing in Marco Rubio is throwing good money after bad. Of the four viable candidates left in the race, Senator Rubio spent the most in New Hampshire, spent the most in South Carolina and spent the most in Nevada. The return has been dismal," Weaver wrote.

“Well he spent no resources and he got 5 percent of the vote, so I’d say he that got what exactly what he paid for," Rubio senior adviser Jason Roe said in an interview with CNN on Wednesday morning. "Next Tuesday, there will be 12 primaries going on, and John Kasich appears to not be competing in any of them. He has now staked his claim on winning in Michigan in March 8, so there will be another 12, 16 states that will have already held elections that John Kasich has done moderately good in one of those."

Roe continued, musing that he did not "even know why [Kasich] stays in the race other than to make a point."

"But talk about spending good money after bad: I think anybody that invested in John Kasich right now is investing in Enron after its collapse. There’s just nothing there for him to compete with," Roe said, noting that Rubio has scored the endorsements of governors and members of Congress who had served with the current governor of Ohio.