Mitch Perry
After a rough few weeks, Florida Democratic Senate candidate Patrick Murphy received some good news Friday.
An NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released Friday shows the Jupiter representative trailing Republican Marco Rubio by just 3 percentage points in a one-on-one Senate matchup this fall. That’s better than several other polls that have been taken since Rubio’s re-emergence in the Senate race showing the GOP incumbent up by bigger margins.
And the Senate Majority PAC has announced a $1 million ad campaign on his behalf will begin next week in Florida.
“Marco Rubio and his allies have always struggled with the truth and their recent attacks are no exception,” said Shripal Shah, spokesman for Senate Majority PAC. “We’re not going to let them get away with misleading voters just to help Marco Rubio further his 2020 presidential ambitions. Floridians deserve better, starting with a senator who actually wants the job and will show up to work.”
The ads will begin to run, although Murphy is no sure thing to be the Democratic nominee in November against Rubio. He’s running in an extremely competitive primary against Orlando-area Rep. Alan Grayson.
Senate Majority PAC was created by former aides to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Reid personally told Grayson to his face back in May that “I want you to lose.”
The new ads from Senate Majority PAC no doubt intend to counter the narrative of one particular ad being run in the past week by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Florida. The ad repeats allegations regarding Murphy’s resume and work background originally broadcast in a CBS Miami report last month, a report the Murphy camp has said was inaccurate.
It was announced earlier Friday that another super PAC designed to help Republicans, the Senate Leadership Fund, will begin airing $1.5 million worth of ads against Murphy next week, and will feature parts of that CBS Miami report in it as well.
