The National Republican Senate Committee (NRSC) is calling out U.S. Senate candidate, Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-FL) on his apparent hypocritical position on campaign finance reform.
Murphy has denounced the Citizens United decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, and wants an overhaul of federal campaign finance, but is having a hard time getting by the fact that his current Senate and past House campaigns, have been the beneficiaries of the tens of thousands of dollars raised by those dreaded Super PACs.The Republicans are quick to point out that Thomas “Papa” Murphy has poured in just under half of the $535k raised by Floridians for a Strong Middle Class, a group that came about to aide his son’s Senate bid.
Papa Murphy is not new to the soft money game, as he was instrumental in funding super PACS that went after former Congressman Allen West (R-FL) back in 2012 by generously pumping in $550k into them.
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Here is what Rep. Murphy has recently stated in a Sun-Sentinel op-ed about the current state of federal campaign finance:
- “Never before in our nation’s history has such an obscene amount of money been used to distort the will of the people and give such an extremely undue influence to anonymous, dark-money donors.”
- “We are truly living in an age when unaccountable millionaires and billionaires can pull the strings of democracy.”
- “[Citizens United] is among the most detrimental to our democracy in American history, and I have always opposed it.”
- “Why should [millionaires and billionaires] have a greater say in who our elected representatives are than you or I do? Do their voices matter more than a public school teacher in Jupiter? Or a firefighter in Jacksonville? Or an elderly couple in Century Village?”
- “It’s time to take our politics out of the gutter and focus on working on the serious challenges our country faces.”
- “By fighting against Citizens United, we are fighting for our democracy itself.”
Meanwhile, Murphy’s chief Democratic opponent, Rep. Alan Grayson, is out bashing Murphy on this very same issue, calling him all kinds of names, including “errand boy for Wall Street.”
Grayson has already called on Murphy to denounce super PACs playing a role in their Senate primary race, but Murphy has stayed silent.The winner of the Democratic Senate primary race in Florida will go on to face one of several formidable Republicans vying for their party’s nomination.
As of today, Reps Ron DeSantis and David Jolly, as well as businessman Todd Wilcox and Lt. Governor Carlos Lopez-Cantera, are the only GOP candidates actively running for the U.S. Senate seat Marco Rubio is leaving vacant.
