Senate Majority PAC to begin $1 million ad campaign next week for Patrick Murphy

in 2017/Top Headlines by

After a rough last few weeks, Florida Democratic Senate candidate Patrick MurphyĀ received some good news on Friday.

AnĀ NBC News/Wall Street Journal/MaristĀ poll released Friday shows the Jupiter Representative trailing RepublicanĀ Marco RubioĀ by just 3 percentage points in a one-on-one Senate matchup this fall. That’sĀ better thanĀ several other polls that have been taken since Rubio’s reemergence in the Senate race that shows himĀ the GOP incumbent up by bigger margins.

And the Senate Majority PAC has announced a $1 million ad campaign on his behalf that will will begin next week in Florida.

ā€œMarco Rubio and his allies have always struggled with the truth and their recent attacks are no exception,ā€ said Shripal Shah, spokesman for Senate Majority PAC.Ā  ā€œWeā€™re not going to let them get away with misleading voters just to help Marco Rubio further his 2020 presidential ambitions.Ā  Floridians deserve better, starting with a Senator who actually wants the job and will show up to work.”

The ads will begin to run while Murphy is no sure thingĀ to be the Democratic nominee in November against Rubio. He’s running in an extremely competitive primary against Orlando-area RepresentativeĀ Alan Grayson.Ā 

Senator Majority PAC was created by former aides to Senate Majority LeaderĀ Harry Reid.Ā ReidĀ personallyĀ told Grayson to his face back in May thatĀ ā€œI want you to lose.”

The new ads from Senate Majority PAC no doubt intend to counter the narrative of one particular ad being run in the past week by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Florida. The ad repeatsĀ allegations regarding Murphy’s resume and work background that were originally broadcast in a CBS Miami report last month, a report that the Murphy camp has saidĀ was inaccurate.

It was announced earlier on Friday that another super PAC designed to help Republicans,Ā the Senate Leadership Fund,Ā will begin airing $1.5 million worth of ads against Murphy next week, and will feature parts of that CBS Miami report in it as well.

Mitch Perry has been a reporter with Extensive Enterprises since November of 2014. Previously, he served as five years as the political editor of the alternative newsweekly Creative Loafing. He also was the assistant news director with WMNF 88.5 FM in Tampa from 2000-2009, and currently hosts MidPoint, a weekly talk show, on WMNF on Thursday afternoons. He began his reporting career at KPFA radio in Berkeley. He's a San Francisco native who has now lived in Tampa for 15 years and can be reached at [email protected].