After his first day in the U.S. Senate race, U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Fla., is drawing fire from the left and the right.
Murphy announced on Monday morning that he will run for the seat currently held by U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. While Murphy sent a few jabs Rubios way, the senator is expected to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 and not for a second term in the Senate.
Doubling down on his attacks against Rubio, Murphy sent out an email to supporters on Monday after he launched his campaign and continued pummeling the Florida Republican.
For the past several months, Ive been listening to my friends, my family, and my fellow Floridians, Murphy wrote. I'm hearing the same sentiment from everyone: Congress is broken. Politicians can't or won't get anything done. And Washington is headed in the wrong direction. Someone needs to step up and do something about it.
Our current senator, Marco Rubio, is a career politician who has shown time and time again that he does not represent Florida's middle class, Murphy added. Rubio denies climate change is real and wants to privatize Social Security. It's clear, it's time for Marco Rubio to go.
The people of Florida deserve a leader who spends every day in office working to restore the Everglades, fighting for the middle class, and protecting Social Security and Medicare, Murphy continued. That's exactly what I intend to do as the next United States senator from the state of Florida.
Also on Monday, Murphy reeled in the endorsement of U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., who had been considered a possible candidate in the Senate race.
But not all Democrats are lining up behind Murphy. Susan Smith, the president of the Democratic Progressive Caucus of Florida, insisted liberals would prefer to see U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., get the Senate nomination and cited a survey of her members. Grayson has left the door open to a Senate bid.
Grayson, a populist who knows how to get things done, has been named the most effective member of the ... U.S. House of Representatives, Smith said on Monday. That's the type of leadership that Florida Progressives would like to see in the U.S. Senate.
Leadership matters, especially now when issues such as climate change and income inequality are affecting Florida voters, Smith added, before returning to her members clear preference for Grayson. As this vote indicates, progressives are clearly looking for a bold champion who will inspire and engage voters."
Smith then took a few shots at Murphy.
We can't afford to run former Republicans or corporate Democrats who consider themselves centrists but who are really Republican lite. If we do that, we lose, Smith said. We don't have the luxury of putting up candidates who don't know how to fight for their constituents. Grayson is known as the congressman with guts for a reason, Smith concluded. He is a proven leader that the DPCF would be proud to support in the 2016 Senate race.
The National Republican Senate Committee (NRSC) also took aim at Murphy, noting that U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), appeared on Facing South Florida With Jim DeFede over the weekend and said she thought there would be a competitive Democratic primary for the Senate nomination.
Pointing to an article from Saint PetersBlog in which Democrats from the Tampa Bay area said they thought U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham, D-Fla., could enter the Senate race, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) took shots at both her and Murphy.
Earlier today, Patrick Murphy officially announced that hes running for U.S. Senate after serving a whopping two years and three months in the House of Representatives, the NRCC noted on Monday. With Murphys candidacy setting the bar extremely low in terms of the experience and achievements necessary to announce, with a straight face, a run for U.S. Senate, will this open the door for freshman Gwen Graham to throw her hat into the ring as well?
What will Graham do? the NRCC continued. Will she announce she is not running for U.S. Senate so she can focus on her North Florida congressional district? Or will she start figuring out how to take her so-called North Florida Way to South Florida and West Florida and East Florida and everywhere in between?
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
