Why is the party scared of Alan Grayson?

[hay rick]

105. You have to crawl before you can walk.

In an alternate universe, the people of Florida are just waiting for a progressive hero like Alan Grayson to lead them to the promised land of revolt against the 1%. I wish I inhabited that universe- I like Grayson's politics better than Murphy's. Sadly, in the Florida which I do inhabit, I think we are better off with Murphy as a candidate.

I have witnessed Murphy very close up. I worked on his initial campaign against Allen West. I volunteered because I wanted to take down West. Story here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021798362 In the course of that campaign I spent hundreds of hours in Murphy campaign offices, made thousands of phone calls, marched in parades, put out roadside signs, and wrote letters to the editor. I worked more on a local campaign in 2014 but I still did some work for Murphy and his local office was next door to our county office so I was able to witness his campaign's activities on a regular basis. One important observation based on my experience: Murphy has a very professional campaign operation.

The article ties Murphy to Crist and Sink based on ideology and claims that, on that basis, he will lose like they did. I beg to differ. Murphy and Crist may be ideological kin, but Murphy is a tireless, capable campaigner and Crist was inept in 2014. I witnessed the Crist campaign close up a couple of times and came away bitterly disappointed. The voters verdict in my county: Murphy +8%, Crist -15%.

One problem with Florida's governor race is that it is contested in non-presidential years and Democrats don't turn out. Scott outspent Crist by 2 to 1 and spent almost all of it on attack ads. My take on his spending was that he wanted to convince younger, inattentive voters that Crist was just as bad as him, so they could just stay home. And they did.

The Republicans don't have a positive message to offer most voters in Florida, so they offer fear, hate, and disgust- and it has been working. My problem with Grayson is I think he will be a big, easy target for the Republican hate machine. The article cites his fundraising prowess but I don't see him being able to raise 5 or 10 times as much from his national progressive base just because he is running for the Senate instead of for a safe seat in the House. Murphy can raise money and I think his button-down persona will be much less vulnerable to Republican attacks. He survived a withering series of attack ads in his initial campaign.