Bob Graham likely to be latest major Florida Democrat to endorse Patrick Murphy

Although initial polls regarding the Democratic battle for U.S. Senate in Florida have gone back and forth, Patrick Murphy is dominating Alan Grayson in one category:  endorsements from fellow Democrats.

Monday morning could bring one of the biggest and potentially most influential of those to date in the person of Bob Graham.

The former governor and U.S. senator is as close as it comes to royalty among state Democrats, and he’s scheduled to make an announcement with Murphy later in the day.

It will come as no surprise. Since declaring his Senate candidacy almost a year ago to the day, Murphy has been the favorite of the Democratic establishment in Tallahassee and Washington.

This past May the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee officially endorsed the Jupiter-based congressman. If that wasn’t proof positive the powers that be want Murphy to be the Democratic nominee this fall,  President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden ended any such doubts with their support for Murphy this month.

Late this past week the Murphy campaign released a list of 45 Democratic House members who support his candidacy, including 10 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and several members of the Congressional LGBT Equality and Black Caucuses.

Democrats nationally think that Murphy’s center-left political persona can win the statewide race, and they’re counting on getting Florida to be one of the five states that must flip for them to take back control of the senate.

One Democrat not impressed by the Graham endorsement is Grayson.

“If you take a look at the polling for those who pitted his daughter against me and Patrick, his daughter (U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham) came in a very, very poor third in that hypothetical race, so I don’t think that a lot of voters would be influenced by that at all,” Grayson told FloridaPolitics.com on Sunday.

Grayson has led in most nearly all of the early polls, but a recent Univision Noticias and Washington Post poll has Murphy ahead of Grayson 36 percent to 29 percent, with 30 percent undecided.