As Florida Senate Race Heats Up, Democrats Move In to Back Murphy

As Florida Senate Race Heats Up, Democrats Move In to Back Murphy

The Florida Senate race is starting to look a lot like the presidential race, at least in terms of wildly fluctuating numbers amongst polls and significant changes reported almost daily.

Marco Rubio (R-FL) is running against newly-mined Democrat and Representative of Florida’s 18th district Patrick Murphy (D-FL), and the race currently stands . . . who knows?  Polls show that Rubio is up as much as 10 points, 6 points, or maybe only 3.6 points (the latter two down from a 7 point lead earlier this month).

Murphy, so far, is not leading and has not led in any poll, but that hasn’t stopped Democrats from taking another look as polls fluctuate and the race appears to tighten.

Following the DSCC pulling its money out of the Rubio-Murphy race less than two weeks ago, Roll Call reports that two super PACs, one backed by Harry Reid, are quickly getting Murphy some small amounts of cash.

Florida Rep. Patrick Murphy is getting a cash boost from donors and a Democratic super PAC as his campaign shows signs of life in his Senate race against Republican incumbent Sen. Marco Rubio.

Mike Fernandez, a Republican donor based in Miami, announced he would give $100,000 to a super PAC supporting Murphy, citing Murphy’s support for ending the U.S. embargo against Cuba.

The contribution comes as the Senate Majority PAC, a group affiliated with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, announced it would transfer at least $1 million to the super PAC, as well.

National Democrats appeared a few weeks ago to be throwing in the towel in Florida — Senate Majority PAC previously canceled $6 million in advertising for Murphy, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which endorsed him against Rep. Alan Grayson in the primary, delayed pro-Murphy advertising.

As the race heats up, the Senate Leadership Fund is airing an ad in Orlando, Tampa, and West Palm Beach touting Murphy, in Trump-style, as “Phony Patrick” and a “Party-boy Patrick.”

Watch:

Rubio, too, has called in the big guns for the final push in Florida: his wife, Jeanette. Jeanette is involved in the issue of human trafficking and stars in Rubio’s latest ad pinpointing Rubio’s Girls Count Act.

Watch:

Obama, on the stump for Hillary in Florida, is also talking about his support for Murphy.  This move indicates that he too is encouraged by the recent polls showing a tighter than expected race.

Politico reports:

“Unlike his opponent, Marco Rubio, Patrick actually shows up to his job,” an apparent reference to Rubio’s many missed votes while he was running for the GOP nomination.

“He didn’t say that he was supportive of Florida’s Latino community but then, when the politics got tough, you walk away from comprehensive immigration reform,” Obama continued. “Unlike his opponent, he actually believes in science and that climate change is happening.”

. . . . Murphy especially has underperformed with black and Hispanic voters, who his campaign acknowledges have little knowledge of his candidacy. Obama’s trips to Florida to rip Rubio are the best earned media Murphy can get.

For his part, Rubio got in some great jabs during the final debate between the two candidates.  One that struck me as particularly effective was “He’s been there for four years and nobody has even noticed.”   That’s actually true.  Murphy won Colonel Allen West’s seat after redistricting disfavored West, and has since . . . done nothing notable.  He’s so busy trying to prove himself and establish his progressive cred to the Obama-Clinton-Pelosi-Reid quadrumvirate that he’s dropped his former ideals as a centrist, fiscally-conservative Republican and all-but-disappeared. 

The Florida Senate race still leans Republican, but could go either way at this point.

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