Even as a new poll shows Florida voters are unsure about the candidates looking to replace U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in 2016, some of the top contenders are going on the attack. Rubio is running for the Republican presidential nomination and has said he will not seek a second term in the Senate.
Quinnipiac University released a poll on Tuesday morning which finds the candidates are blank slates even with their own parties as 80 percent of all voters are unsure about some of the Senate hopefuls.
U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Fla., now running for the Democratic nomination to replace Rubio, doubled down on his support for campaign finance reform, calling out the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision.
“We’ve all seen the political ads that come up in an election year,” Murphy emailed supporters on Monday. “It’s hard to miss them. They’re full of dark images and sinister-sounding music. And they’re paid for by groups with names like ‘Americans for Freedom’ and ‘Prosperity of a Greater America GPS.’
“Of course, these groups aren’t backed by everyday Americans -- they’re backed by billionaires and corporations. These groups funnel huge sums of money, many times without disclosure, and dump it into elections to influence voters,” Murphy added. “How do they get away with it? Two words: Citizens United. The Supreme Court opened the spending door with that decision back in 2010 -- and special interest groups have burst right through, spending more and more as time goes on.”
Murphy insisted the decision had “disastrous effects ... on our democracy,” especially in regard to “Koch brothers’ network of outside groups.”
“In the 2014 elections, the Koch network spent $100 million and ran more than 44,000 ads,” Murphy wrote. “They’re planning on going even bigger in the 2016 elections -- they’ve pledged to spend almost a billion dollars. When groups can spend that much, their issues get heard most. Which is a problem, because the issues these groups care about are not the same issues Florida families care about. The Koch brothers, and their big-money donors, get one vote each -- just like everyone else. Their voices shouldn’t be heard a billion times louder than any other American. Their issues shouldn’t dominate elections across the country. This isn’t the United States of Koch & Friends. This is the United States of America. And this isn’t how our democracy should work.”
But Republican PAC American Crossroads pointed to End Citizens United, a super-PAC, backing Murphy in the Senate race. American Crossroads also noted that Murphy relied on a super-PAC, primarily funded by his father, in 2012 and has been supported by super-PACs, including those backed by Beltway Democrats, during his political career.
“Former Republican rich kid Patrick Murphy owes his instant political career to family-financed super-PACs,” said Ian Prior, a spokesman for American Crossroads, on Tuesday. “It’s laughably ironic that a super-PAC that claims to oppose super-PACs has endorsed a super-PAC-dependent politician like Murphy.”
In the meantime, U.S. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., Murphy’s main opponent for the Democratic nomination, launched a new Web ad on Tuesday. Grayson’s new ad relies heavily on an Inside Gov list released in recent weeks which ranked Murphy as one of the least effective members of Congress. The new ad is included below.
One of the Republicans running for the Senate came out swinging at both Grayson and Murphy on Tuesday. U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., jabbed the two Democrats over President Barack Obama’s deal with Iran on its nuclear program. DeSantis said Grayson and Murphy were silent on the issue.
"Opposition to the pending Iran deal is a no-brainer,” DeSantis said. "The deal gives $150 billion to the world's leading state-sponsor of terrorism, confers international legitimacy to Iran's nuclear program, and contains an inadequate inspections regime. Furthermore, the deal gratuitously lifts sanctions against Qasem Soleimani and the Quds Force, who were responsible for killing hundreds of Americans in Iraq. There is even a secret deal between Iran and the IAEA that relies on Iran inspecting its own military sites!
"The silence from Murphy and Grayson is deafening," DeSantis added. "They should show some leadership by publicly opposing this deal and working in a bipartisan way to accumulate enough votes to override a presidential veto. Sitting on the sidelines won't cut it when America's national security is at stake."
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
