With Rep. Patrick Murphy (D) vacating his congressional seat to run for the U.S. Senate, the vacuum that he created when he decided to leave his House seat has just been filled.

Of the ten or so candidates who ran to be the next member of Congress in Florida’s 18th congressional district, only businessman Randy Perkins (D) and wounded Veteran Brian Mast (R) were left standing.

Now the political cage match between Mast and Perkins, as well as their supporting political parties and outside groups, can begin.

Actually,  the barbs have already begun to fly.

Democrats will try in earnest to knock Mast for accepting donations from individuals with ties to “Big Sugar.”

Brian Mast

According to Mast, the sugar-laced donations his campaign received have been returned, but that won’t make any difference, as Democrats will surely try to drop a hefty-sized bag of sugar on Mast’s campaign.

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), who has pledged to spend over $1 million dollars to defeat Perkins,  has already started attacking “Rip off Randy ”  as being “sleazy even by Washington standards.” (Video)

We reached out to Mast on the heels of his primary election victory and asked him what he thought of his Democratic challenger.

Mast likened Perkins to Republican-turned-Independent-turned-Democrat, Charlie Crist, who is currently running for Congress in Florida’s 17th congressional district against Rep. David Jolly (R).

Randy Perkins is a Charlie Crist Democrat.

He is cut from the same political opportunist cloth as Charlie Crist, and like Crist did back in the 2010 Senate race, Mr. Perkins changed his party affiliation for sheer political expediency.-Brian Mast

Days before filing to run for congress, Perkins changed his Non Political Affiliation status to Democrat.