Democrats continue their obsession with former Congressman Allen West (R), as the two Democratic Senate candidates in Florida, Rep. Alan Grayson and Rep. Patrick Murphy, are quick to reference West in their attacks against one another.
Grayson says that Murphy only beat West in 2012 because he ran a Republican-like congressional campaign.
In reality, Murphy ran a very middle-of-the-road and safe campaign against West because his congressional district leans Republican, but only after Supervisors of Elections in the three counties that are nestled in that congressional district, recounted the final ballots.
Voter fraud was suspected to have helped Murphy beat West, and those suspicions were later thrust back into the political discourse, as one of Murphy’s campaign consultants was convicted of committing voter fraud in another congressional campaign he was working on during the same 2012 election cycle.
Some prominent Democratic strategists close to Murphy have stated that West won Murphy the race when he continued to batter Murphy over an arrest when he was 19 years old.
The National Journal reported:
“Patrick Murphy was heroic in taking down Allen West; he slayed that dragon in a very difficult race, and I think he’s going to get to use that race in his race for Senate,” said Democratic donor John Morgan, a past ally of Grayson’s who is supporting Murphy in the primary. “He is a moderate, practical Democrat who stands up to demagogues and bullies.”
Grayson, like most liberal Democrats, loathes Allen West:
He is a nothing as a congressman, he is a nothing as a human being, he is wrong on all the issues, so all he has left is to desperately try to throw dirt at me.”
Allen West is “nothing as a human being?”
This coming from the man that refers to conservatives as Klansmen and Republicans as bigots?
Now Murphy is embracing Allen West once again, this time making his 2012 race against the conservative firebrand the focus of his Senate campaign. Tampa Bay Times quoted Murphy:
“His answer to every question was no. He cared more about getting a good headline than he did about helping everyday Floridians,” Murphy said. “Turn on Fox News, or turn on C-Span. The Senate is full of Allen Wests.”
While bashing Allen West is good for raising money with the far-left element of the Democratic Party, Murphy will need to veer to the left of his current political position if he stands a chance of defeating Grayson in this already contentious Democratic Senate primary race.
In the 2014 gubernatorial race in Florida, Republican-turned-Independent-turned Democrat Charlie Crist had to “hug it out” with this very same leftist fringe of the Democratic Party in order have a prayer in defeating Republican Governor Rick Scott.
Because Crist gave the pro-choice, big government, and more taxes liberal agenda a great big bear hug, the master political chameleon was able to raise a lot of campaign dollars, but eventually all that money could not deliver him a win on election night.
Murphy needs to be careful not to bash Grayson too hard over the head over his past anti-conservative, anti-Republican remarks. Leftists love Grayson, and if Murphy does hit him on those past statements, they will turn on him.
Murphy’s congressional district is made up of a lot of military veterans, which could give combat wounded Army veteran and Republican congressional candidate Brian Mast an advantage over his 2016 primary opponents. Democrats are already betting that the general election to replace Patrick Murphy will be between Mast and Democratic favorite, Palm Beach County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay.
There are three other Democrats running against McKinlay, and nine Republicans running against Mast, including St. Lucie County Commissioner Tod Mowery, Paul Spain, and Rick Kozell among others, including the wife of Sen. Joe Negron—Martin County School Board member Rebecca Negron.
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