Scott Powers
U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson‘s campaign for the U.S. Senate is declaring that the ethics complaints issues pushed by his Democratic opponent U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy have turned into a fundraising bonanza for Grayson.
The campaign stated in a news release Thursday it has seen a recent surge in contributions, especially in small, on-line donations, “as Grayson supporters rallied against the smear tactics employed by the Patrick Murphy for Senate campaign.”
As a result, the Grayson campaigns aid it expects to top $1 million in online small-dollar donations in a few days.
Grayson’s management of private hedge funds that were once named for him has been an ethics issue smoldering around him for a year, and led last summer to formal ethics complaints filed against him with the Office of Congressional Ethics. Grayson has maintained all along that he has done nothing wrong. But in the past two weeks the smoldering erupted into full flames, with several media reports, including one in the New York Times, and confirmation that the House Committee on Ethics was taking the complaints seriously. The Murphy campaign has fanned the flames.
“The Murphy campaign’s incessant cow-pie flinging has obviously backfired,” Grayson campaign spokesman David Damron stated in the news release. “Democratic activists all over the country are up in arms against Murphy’s and the D.C Establishment’s disgusting Karl Rove tactics.”
During this time, Grayson’s campaign stated Thursday, “One Grayson campaign e-mail after another has been greeted with a deluge of donations.
“Yesterday alone, the campaign raised $68,112, including $19,748 in immediate contributions and another $48,364 in monthly donations by preauthorized credit card,” the release reported. “Remarkably, more new donors signed up for monthly contributions yesterday – a single day – than in any previous month, going all the way back to 2009.”
