Alan Grayson blasts Patrick Murphy in announcing his candidacy for Senate

Alan Grayson is running for the U.S. Senate.

“This is going to be the first real political race of the 21st Century,” the Orlando Democratic Congressman made the announcement this morning during a televised interview with WKMG-TV, the CBS affiliate in Orlando. He compared it’s national appeal to Elizabeth Warren‘s successful run for the Senate in Massachusetts in 2012.  “It’s going to be famous. What people see of us doing in this race is going to live until the end of time. This is going to be the first race, the first real political race of the 21st century,” Grayson said.

Grayson talked about shoring up Social Security and Medicare and make sure that paid sick leave is available for everyone.

The other major Democrat in the race, Jupiter Congressman Patrick Murphy, released a statement shortly after Grayson’s announcement where he said that, “I look forward to a clean, honest discussion of the issues in this primary.”

That’s not going to happen.

“His campaign has already failed,” Grayson said when asked Murphy. “People understand what I stand for. Patrick wants to cut Social Security, cut Medicare, and Patrick gave $2,300 to Mitt Romney’s campaign. Patrick’s running’s running in the wrong primary.  He should be running as a Republican, because that’s who he really is.”

Grayson said that he’s leading the polls by 40 percentage points.

A Quinnipiac poll taken last month shows both Grayson and Murphy leading Republicans Ron DeSantis and potential candidate Carlos Lopez-Cantera in prospective one-on-one match-ups, but did not include a direct match-up between the two Democratic candidates.  A Public Policy Polling survey taken in May showed Grayson with 22 percent support and Murphy at 21 percent.

In the interview Grayson showed that he’s not about to start cleaning up shoot from the hip style now that he’s running for Senate. When asked his reaction to attorney John Morgan‘s comment that Grayson can’t win a statewide race, the Orlando firebrand retorted. “I think John should should lay off the scotch, at least until noon.”