@ByKristenMClark
Democrat Patrick Murphy's campaign for U.S. Senate spent the weekend seeking donations from the Jupiter congressman's supporters in order to counter an attack ad, which Better Florida Alliance launched against him on Friday.
In an "urgent" message Saturday morning, Murphy's campaign manager Josh Wolf fired off a plea to Murphy's fundraising list, blasting the conservative advocacy group as a "shady SuperPAC" and calling their ad "a complete distortion of Patrick's record."
The ad was critical of a vote Murphy cast related to taking military action against ISIS, as well as his support for gun-control reforms. As of noon Monday, it had 171 views on YouTube. Better Florida Alliance said it planned to target the ad across social media over the holidays.
Murphy is running in the contentious 2016 Democratic primary against U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Orlando, for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Marco Rubio.
"They think that if they get their smears out now, voters will believe them. They are right," Wolf said in the fundraising email. "I would be lying if I said I wasn’t worried about this attack."
"We have to fight back every time an attack like this is launched," Wolf added. "We cannot let distortions about Patrick’s record go uncorrected."
The campaign sought to raise $10,000 to create a "Rapid Response Fund," the email said. As of 7:30 Sunday, the campaign said in a follow-up fundraising email to supporters that it was still $1,500 away from its goal.
"With recent polls showing a huge number of voters undecided in this race, we cannot risk letting these lies take root," the second email said.
Murphy's campaign declined to comment last week in response to the ad and declined to tell the Herald/Times on Monday whether it had reached its fundraising goal.
Photo credit: Walter Michot/ Miami Herald
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