As Senate candidate and current Congressman Patrick Murphy touts how he cleaned up in his fundraising compared to the other declared Senate hopefuls he's facing in the 2016 Senate primary, a poll out today shows Democrat Alan Grayson, also a Congressman, as leading Murphy by seven points.
The poll, commissioned by Florida Politics and carried out by St. Pete Polls, had Grayson at 30 percent, Murphy at 23 percent and Keith at eight percent.
The real winner? No one; 17 percent and 22 percent chose someone else and undecided, respectively.
Well, there are a good 13 months to go till the primary, and polling so far in the race is pretty much all over the place, so we should probably all just relax — except the candidates, who should probably get scootin'.
Murphy is well on his way, we must say. He's been crisscrossing the state and has picked up endorsements from tons of important Democrats, among them Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn and St. Pete Mayor Rick Kriseman.
And those campaign dollars we mentioned? He's pulled in $1.4 million over the past quarter and now has $2.5 million on hand — more than Grayson, and GOP Congressman Ron DeSantis.
Murphy's campaign points out that both have gotten contributions from right wing groups; DeSantis for obvious reasons, and Grayson because he's viewed as too liberal and all-around outrageous to succeed in a general election.
"Despite being attacked by conservative outside groups, Patrick significantly outraised our opponents and continued to build support across the state," said Josh Wolf, Murphy's campaign manager in a media release. "While Alan Grayson and Ron DeSantis are depending on support from conservative organizations that are determined to dismantle Social Security and Medicare, Patrick is racking up support from Floridians across the state who are tired of the dysfunction in Washington."
The candidate field in the Senate race seems to be growing by the day, especially on the Republican side.
On Wednesday, Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera finally launched his run. Congressman Jeff Miller (R-Chumuckla?!) is said to be stepping in soon, as is Congressman David Jolly (R-Indian Shores), who leads the pack by ten points in another recent poll.
This article appears in Jul 16-22, 2015.