Scott Powers
Central Floridians will soon be getting to know Stephanie Murphy and presumably John Mica very, very well — at least from the perspective of Democrats who are pushing her in the now intensely competitive contest for Florida’s Congressional District 7.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which helped find and promote Murphy to run against Mica this year, is planning a $3 million onslaught of television commercials in the Orlando market during the last five weeks of the campaign season.
In addition, the House Majority PAC, another committee seeking to elect Democratic members of the House of Representatives, has its own push in the works. No full numbers are available for what that committee is planning, but a review of records shows the PAC has already purchased nearly $400,000 worth of TV commercials to run in late September.
The outside buys are unprecedented for a congressional campaign in Central Florida. They signal that the Democrats are putting their money behind what they’ve been saying since last year’s congressional redistricting in Florida. And that is that Democrats believe Mica, a 12-term congressman who hasn’t had a serious Democratic challenger in over a decade, may be vulnerable this year.
None of the contracts specify that commercials are for Murphy or against Mica. But there are six congressional races in the Orlando TV market; and the CD 7 race is the only one likely to be close. It’s also the one the DCCC already has made a big deal about trying to win. In the others, incumbent Republican U.S. Reps. Ron DeSantis, Bill Posey, and Dan Webster are heavily favored in Districts 6, 8 and 11 respectively; while newly minted Democratic nominees Darren Soto and Val Demings will be strong favorites in Districts 9 and 10.
So just about everyone figures these ads all will be about praising Murphy and attacking Mica.
“The DCCC is trying to buy this election to make Nancy Pelosi speaker once again and that will be rejected by the voters of Central Florida,” said Mica’s campaign spokesman Alan Byrd. “In addition to the Washington money, anyone can look at the opposition’s financial report and see that 90 percent of those funds to take this seat are coming from outside the district. In contrast, Congressman Mica has thousands of local contributors and — because of his strong record of accomplishments in our community — has significant support throughout Central Florida.”
Murphy’s campaign declined to comment, referring inquiries to the DCCC. That committee also declined to comment. The House Majority PAC did not respond to an inquiry.
The newly drawn CD 7 area loses heavily Republican regions in southwest Volusia County and picks up more-Democratic areas in Sanford and north-central Orange County. That makes the voter base almost even between Republicans and Democrats. The DCCC also is counting on Murphy’s youth to push for a younger generation in the relatively young district. She’s 37. He’s 73, and has been in Congress since 1992.
Neither Mica nor Murphy have, at this stage, anywhere close to the kind of campaign money needed to match what the DCCC is doing. Mica has spent as much as $2.4 million on a re-election campaign, but that was in 2012 when the previous redistricting forced him to run in a primary against another incumbent Republican, U.S. Rep. Sandy Adams. This year, on Aug. 10 his campaign had $788,000 on hand. Murphy’s campaign had $154,000. And as Byrd said, much of her early money came from a national fundraising drive organized by the Democrats.
A FloridaPolitics.com review of Orlando TV stations’ public files found that the DCCC already has reserved more than $1.2 million in TV time, for hundreds of ad spots starting Oct. 4, on four broadcast stations, WFTV-9, WESH-2, WKCF-CW 18, and Me TV. Orlando’s CBS station, WKMG-6, and Fox station, WOFL-35, have not yet posted any contracts from DCCC. And the review does not include commercials the committee has placed on cable networks in Orlando.
The review found $384,000 worth of TV ads already reserved by the House Majority Political Action Committee. They start airing Sept. 20.
