A year until the primary to replace U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in the Senate, the two leading Democratic candidates continue to pound away at each other with both of them trying to pin Wall Street on their opponent. Rubio is running for the Republican presidential nomination and is not expected to run for a second Senate term.
U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., came out firing at U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Fla., last week, insisting he was in Wall Street’s pocket.
“You know the truth: My vote can’t be bought. I can’t be bossed around,” Grayson emailed supporters last week. “That’s why the Washington elites and Wall Street bankers hate me.
“You know who can be bought?” Grayson asked. “Patrick Murphy, my opponent, who (for example) has taken more than $15,000 from Goldman Sachs. I wonder what he had to promise to get that money? Another disgusting attempt to slash Social Security and Medicare? Another repugnant vote to subsidize and bail out Wall Street? I wouldn’t put it past him. Neither should you.
“Wall Street is heavily backing my opponent so he’ll continue to vote to deregulate Wall Street, gut Social Security and Medicare, and push the Democratic Party further to the right,” Grayson continued. “I’ll do the exact opposite.”
Grayson followed up on Thursday with another email to supporters, following the same line of attack.
“In Florida, Goldman Sachs and the Wall Street banks are trying to buy yet another United States Senate seat for their corrupt cabal,” Grayson insisted. “That’s why they’re pouring money into Patrick Murphy’s campaign -- more than $15,000 from Goldman Sachs alone -- and the Washington elites are cheering it on. Wall Street is trying to buy our democracy right from under us, so that they can raise fees, cheat borrowers, demand more bailouts, and ‘privatize’ (meaning destroy) sacred government programs like Social Security and Medicare.”
Calling Murphy “Senator Goldman Sachs” and backed by the “Wall Street cabal,” Grayson promised, if elected, to support “justice, equality, and peace.”
Murphy’s camp fired back on Monday, noting that Grayson held a fundraiser in New York City on Thursday night which was hosted by rock star Joan Jett, Empire State Democrats like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Ruth Messinger and Wall Street figures.
"Grayson loves to mug for the cameras and rail against Wall Street, but when the crowds aren't watching he is organizing hedge funds in the Cayman Islands and raising Wall Street campaign cash,” said Joshua Karp, a spokesman for Murphy, on Monday. “For Hedge Fund Manager Grayson to attack Patrick Murphy the same day he held a Wall Street fundraiser is the height of hypocrisy.”
While Grayson and Murphy exchanged fire, attorney Pam Keith, running a dark horse campaign for the Democratic nomination, turned her attention to climate change on Monday.
Noting that President Barack Obama was headed to Alaska this week to focus on climate change, Keith insisted Florida is gravely impacted by rising temperatures.
“We are spending 110+ million dollars each year to put sand back on eroded beaches,” Keith noted on Monday. “We are seeing wild swings in rain levels, and the need to dump fresh water into saltwater estuaries. We are seeing algae muck up our rivers. We are seeing our precious Everglades affected by these changing climate conditions. Changing our energy mix to reduce carbon emissions is, of course, a smart and good step. But someone should have the courage to admit that it is car emissions that are the greatest source of pollution, and that real reductions in CO2 emissions will have to start with cars and trucks. The good news is that we already have so much technology to reduce car emissions. The bad news is that car manufacturers are working against government on emission standards, rather than working with government to maximize the investment and dissemination of car fuel innovation. If all of us worked together on this issue and made it a national priority, we could solve it.”
Grayson’s team returned fire on Monday with the campaign comparing Murphy’s attacks to those American Crossroads, a GOP aligned PAC with ties to Karl Rove, on U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
"It looks like Patrick Murphy is taking a page out of Karl Rove's playbook. This is same bogus attack that Rove used against Elizabeth Warren,” the Grayson team insisted. "In 2012 and 2014, Alan Grayson was the only member for Congress to raise most of his campaign funds from small-dollar donors and this years he's raising more money from small contributions than any other senate candidate. Patrick Murphy, on the other hand, takes thousands from Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street corporations and votes exactly they way they want him to. Alan Grayson is unbought and unbossed. Patrick Murphy is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wall Street."
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
