Marco Rubio, Patrick Murphy battle it out on Florida's airwaves
WASHINGTON – Florida’s nationally watched Senate race is beginning to saturate Florida’s airwaves.
On Tuesday, allies of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced they're kicking off a TV ad blitz reviving allegations that Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy padded his resume. Roughly three hours later, Murphy’s campaign unveiled a new TV ad hitting GOP Sen. Marco Rubio's anti-abortion views.
The ads highlight the candidates' perceived weaknesses in a race that could determine whether Republicans keep control of the Senate next year.
Marco Rubio-Patrick Murphy faceoff in Florida could determine control of Senate
A Monmouth University poll released Tuesday suggests the race is tightening.
Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide
Rubio leads Murphy 47-45%, with 3% supporting another candidate and 5% undecided. In a Monmouth poll taken before last month’s party primaries, Rubio held a 48-43% edge over Murphy. The latest poll of 400 likely Florida voters conducted Sept. 16-19 has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
The Senate Leadership Fund, which has ties to McConnell, announced will spend $10.8 million on its ad against Murphy in Orlando, Tampa, and West Palm Beach media markets. The ad calls Murphy “phony” and says he “exaggerated” claims on his resume.
The spot plays off news reports that questioned how truthful Murphy was about his experience as a CPA and small-business owner. PolitiFact Florida has rated attack ads similar to the one aired by the Senate Leadership Fund as “mostly false” because they say Murphy never ran a small business and was never a licensed CPA in Florida.
Murphy obtained a CPA license from Colorado while he worked in Florida as an auditor.
"These are recycled lies that have been repeatedly discredited by independent fact-checkers,” Murphy's campaign spokeswoman, Galia Slayen, said. “The truth is, Marco Rubio abandoned Florida in the U.S. Senate while Patrick shows up and works hard for this state. It's no wonder Rubio's special-interest allies can't come up with any new material.”
Murphy’s campaign ad, which is running statewide at a cost of at least $1 million, highlights Rubio’s past support of “reckless” legislation that would ban abortions at 20 weeks or longer out an exception for rape or incest.
Rubio has voted for anti-abortion bills that include the exception as well as for bills that don't. He’s said he backs all measures that could reduce the number of abortions.
"Patrick Murphy is distorting Marco's record like he distorted his own resume,” said Rubio's campaign spokeswoman, Olivia Perez-Cubas. “Not only does Murphy support using taxpayer money to fund abortions, he also supports late-term abortions. Murphy's extreme positions on abortion put him out of touch with the vast majority of Floridians.”