May 10, 2018

Report: Treasure Coast congressman under consideration to lead Veterans' Affairs

Brian mast

via @AP

The Associated Press reports Florida Rep. Brian Mast, R-Treasure Coast, is under consideration to lead the Department of Veterans' Affairs. Read their report below: 

President Donald Trump is considering an Army veteran who is a Republican member of Congress for the position of Veterans Affairs secretary, part of a lengthening search for a nominee following the abrupt firing of David Shulkin in March.

A White House official on Thursday said Rep. Brian Mast of Florida, who was elected to the House in 2016, was among the list of candidates for the job heading an agency of 360,000 employees serving 9 million veterans.

The White House official would not say whether Mast is the leading candidate for the VA position. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

Mast is the first member of Congress to open a lawmaker satellite office in a VA facility, setting up shop in the West Palm Beach VA to meet with veterans. He was wounded when serving in Afghanistan in 2010, which resulted in the amputation of both of his legs.

Trump is seeking a nominee to lead the VA after White House physician Dr. Ronny Jackson withdrew his nomination for the post last month.

Acting VA Secretary Robert Wilkie, a former Pentagon undersecretary for personnel and readiness, and Samuel Spagnolo, the president of the National Association of Veterans Affairs Physicians and Dentists, are also under consideration for the post.

VA officials have told some veterans groups they are preparing for the possibility that the agency won't have a permanent VA secretary in place for another three months, as Trump mulls over replacement candidates.

The VA faces problems demanding immediate attention, including a multi-billion dollar revamp of electronic medical records now in limbo that members of Congress fear will prove too costly and wasteful, and a budget shortfall in the coming weeks in its private-sector Veterans Choice program.

The House is slated to vote on a wide-ranging bill next week that would give veterans more freedom to see doctors outside the VA health system and fill the budget shortfall, a major step toward fulfilling Trump's promise to expand private care for veterans.

If Mast leaves his seat to run a Cabinet agency it could be a boon for Florida Democrats as the Treasure Coast district he represents is one of the state's competitive congressional districts. Mast broke with the majority of Republicans to announce his support for an assault weapons ban after the Parkland school shooting on Valentine's Day.

Trump won Mast's district by nine percentage points in 2016 but national Democrats plan to invest heavily in the district, which was recently represented by Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy, before he left the seat to unsuccessfully challenge Republican Sen. Marco Rubio. There are two Republicans in addition to Mast who are seeking the GOP nomination, and Democrats Lauren Baer and Pam Keith are currently engaged in a competitive primary for the Democratic nomination. 

December 23, 2016

Florida members of Congress tell feds: Pay our state for Trump's Mar-a-Lago security costs

Mar-a-Lago

via @learyreports

President-elect Donald Trump's travel to Florida is causing steep security costs and lawmakers want the federal government to pay.

Sens. Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio along with Reps. Alcee Hastings, Ted Deutch, Lois Frankel and Patrick Murphy sent this letter:

Dear Attorney General Lynch and Secretary Johnson,

We are writing to make you aware of the attached request from the Mayor of Palm Beach County regarding reimbursement for ancillary costs associated with helping protect President-elect Trump, who has often visited his home in the area.

According to Mayor Burdick, the county spent approximately $250,000 to provide security support for the President-elect during his four-day visit over Thanksgiving alone.

Congress appropriated $7 million to the Department of Justice in the recently-passed government funding bill (P.L. 114-254) to reimburse State and local law enforcement agencies for overtime costs associated with protecting the President-elect before his inauguration.

We urge you to consider using those funds or any other resources that you deem appropriate to help the county offset these costs.

We appreciate your attention to this matter.

Photo credit: AP

December 07, 2016

Report: After Senate loss, Murphy 'not going to rule anything out' for his political future

2016 Election Senate Murphy

@ByKristenMClark

Since losing his bid for U.S. Senate last month, Democratic U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy has kept a low-profile -- but he's now signaling that this might not be the end of his time in the political spotlight.

In the 2016 election, Murphy had planned on riding a Hillary Clinton wave and nabbing Marco Rubio's U.S. Senate seat, extending his political career in Washington. Instead, Murphy got shot down not only by Rubio's own victorious campaign but by an unrealized level of support for Donald Trump that prevented Clinton from winning Florida and the White House.

In what appears to be Murphy's first media interview since Election Day, the 33-year-old Jupiter resident told his hometown newspaper, The Palm Beach Post, that he's not ruling out future jobs in public service when he leaves Congress in January.

He told The Post he plans to, for now, "focus on the private sector" but "I've made it clear to all my friends and supporters that I do have a desire to serve."

"I don't know how I'll feel in six months, maybe I'll feel different, I don’t know. But for sure I know I’m going to miss certain aspects of the job," said Murphy, who has represented northern Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast in Congress for the past four years.

When The Post asked Murphy specifically about the upcoming 2018 governor's race, Murphy said: "I'm certainly not going to rule anything out. I want to keep all options on the table and I want to just see how I'm feeling, see how the political environment is, see the issues people are talking about."

Read The Post's full story here, in which Murphy also reflects on Trump's victory driven by passionate support that Murphy described as "an undercurrent that I didn't see."

On Tuesday in a farewell speech on the floor of the U.S. House, Murphy said it's "been the honor of a lifetime" to represent Florida's 18th Congressional District, and he reflected on his accomplishments since he first took office in 2013.

Photo credit: Democratic U.S. Senate candidate and U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy gives his concession speech following his loss to Sen. Marco Rubio at the Palm Beach Gardens Marriott in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016. Jim Rassol/Sun Sentinel via AP

November 09, 2016

After U.S. Senate defeat, Patrick Murphy taking time for himself

TNS_US_NEWS_ELN-FLASENATE_1_FL-WRE0044482814

@ByKristenMClark

Following his decisive loss to Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio on Tuesday night, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Patrick Murphy is keeping a low profile.

He's not doing any media interviews today, his campaign said. (The Herald/Times did request one.) The two-term Jupiter congressman has "no immediate plans" other than spending the next few days with family and friends, his campaign said.

After a hard-fought, 20-month campaign, advisers say Murphy was realistic about his odds and was prepared for Tuesday's outcome -- long indicated by consistent polls in Rubio's favor.

Murphy also knew that, regardless of the result, his life would change Tuesday, his campaign said: He'd either be a newly elected U.S. senator or he'd be on his way out as a public official.

Voters decided the latter would be Murphy's fate.

Photo credit: Jim Rassol / Sun Sentinel

Rubio's margin of victory: 716,833 votes

113RubioElect09+NEW+PPP

@ByKristenMClark

While some expected Florida's U.S. Senate race to be relatively close at the end, Florida voters were decisive in re-electing Republican Marco Rubio on Tuesday.

In complete but unofficial results, Rubio's margin of victory was 8 percentage points -- 716,833 votes, to be precise, out almost 9.3 million cast.

Rubio outperformed president-elect Donald Trump -- who took Florida by about 120,000 votes out of almost 9.4 million cast -- while Rubio's Democratic challenger, Patrick Murphy underperformed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Rubio beat Murphy 52 percent to 44 percent, while Trump beat Clinton in Florida 49 percent to 48 percent.

MORE: Rubio returns to U.S. Senate

Murphy, a two-term congressman from Jupiter, won the majority of the vote in only nine of Florida's 67 counties -- most of them in reliably blue hotspots: Alachua, Gadsen, Leon, Orange, Osceola and St. Lucie counties, plus the Democratic stronghold of South Florida: Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach.

While Rubio, of West Miami, lost his home county to Murphy by 109,000 votes, Rubio easily won most of Florida's rural counties and two key metros: Tampa Bay and Jacksonville. In Florida bellwether Hillsborough County, Rubio won by just 2,900 votes, with stronger support in the surrounding counties. In Duval County, Rubio's advantage was more than 69,000 votes.

Murphy -- who will now exit Congress in January after representing the Treasure Coast and northern Palm Beach County for four years -- had a mixed bag in his moderate congressional district. (His redistricted seat went back in the red column Tuesday, won by Republican Brian Mast.)

He won in Palm Beach County by more than 61,000 votes and eked by in St. Lucie County with 3,300 more votes than Rubio. However, he lost Martin County to Rubio by more than 16,000 votes.

Polls had shown Rubio ahead in nearly all polls in the Senate race -- by various margins -- since he declared for re-election in June. Less than a handful had Murphy evenly tied with him.

Photo credit: Pedro Portal / Miami Herald

November 08, 2016

Marco Rubio easily keeps seat in U.S. Senate

2016 Election Senate Rubio

@JeremySWallace @KristenMClark @DavidOvalle305

Marco Rubio is headed back to the U.S. Senate with his prospects of another run for president intact.

Rubio defeated two-term Congressman Patrick Murphy, who couldn’t overcome poor name recognition or questions about embellishments on his résumé.

Tuesday’s outcome was not a surprise given Rubio never trailed in 47 consecutive public polls of the race since he jumped into the contest in June. Yet given that Rubio emphatically stated he would not run for re-election six months ago, the outcome was still improbable.

Rubio, flanked by his family, took the stage at his watch party shortly before 9 p.m. to the cheers of a raucous crowd inside a ballroom at Miami’s Airport Hilton

He said he talked to Murphy by phone. “He ran a great race.”

In his brief remarks, Rubio struck a optimistic tone, making no mention of Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. He took a sharply different tact than Trump, his party’s standard bearer who campaigned with divisive rhetoric.

“America is going to be OK. We will turn this country around. I have faith. I know God is not done with America yet,” Rubio said, adding: “While we can disagree on issues, we cannot share a country where people hate each other because of their political affiliations. We cannot move forward as a nation if we can not have enlightened debates about tough issues."

More here.

Photo credit: Wilfredo Lee / AP

Patrick Murphy wraps up Election Day still on the campaign trail

Murphy election day 1108

@ByKristenMClark & @DavidJNeal

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Patrick Murphy spent Election Day in his familiar territory of South Florida trying to maximize as many votes as possible in what's expected to be a close outcome between him and Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio.

The Miami-born Palm Beach County congressman began the day in north Miami-Dade County -- including with a stop at a polling site he visited on the day of the Aug. 30 Democratic primary, which he won decisively.

"I think it's good luck to be in this location," Murphy said at the North Dade Regional Library in Miami Gardens. "So we're here making sure people show up to vote, getting those last few voters, making sure if they have any questions, we're here to answer them.”

MORE: Live coverage of Election 2016: Here’s what’s happening right now

The hip-hop and modern soul music from WEDR 99 Jamz booth that dominated the library parking lot got stepped on by chants of “Mur-phy! Mur-phy! Mur-phy!” as Murphy shook hands, posed for selfies and talked with supporters before hitting the radio booth.

Asked what he wanted to see on Election Day to indicate he'd defeat Rubio, Murphy said, “Long lines. People show up to vote, we win.”

“It's going to be a close race,” he said. “It's Florida. We expect close races.”

By this afternoon, Murphy had made his way up to Palm Beach Gardens -- home to his campaign office and where Murphy's campaign is hosting its Election Night watch party.

Speaking with reporters, he repeated similar themes of optimism for victory and echoed some of the main talking points of his campaign as a final pitch to TV viewers.

He also said -- on the final day of his 20-month campaign -- that if voters elect him to the U.S. Senate, he's going to work on his Spanish.

At one of his last stops of the campaign, Murphy was asked twice Tuesday afternoon by reporters from Spanish-language media if he could offer a message to their viewers in Spanish.

With a quiet, awkward laugh, all Murphy could humbly say each time was: "Gracias por su voto." ("Thank you for your vote.")

After the second reporter had asked, Murphy jokingly explained: "At one point I was pretty much fluent in Spanish, but I’ve lost it in 14 years, so if elected to the U.S. Senate, that’s something I’m definitely going to brush up on."

Murphy has lagged Rubio throughout the general election campaign this fall, but Murphy says he's optimistic tonight and predicted, "I think we win by 1 or 2 points."

But if he doesn't win, what are his plans? "I haven't thought about that yet," Murphy said with a big grin. "Call me tomorrow morning."

Murphy is campaigning down to the wire in an effort, he said, to maximize voter turnout. His campaign has sent out a half-dozen fundraising emails today making last-minute pleas for money and support.

"We're just trying to do everything we can to get our message out there," Murphy said.

Murphy's dozen supporters at the Palm Beach Gardens library -- waving signs and chanting and cheering -- were outnumbered by the army of media that's come in to town to cover the conclusion of Florida's nationally watched U.S. Senate race.

Clark reported from Palm Beach Gardens, and Neal reported from Miami Gardens.

Photo credit: Kristen M. Clark / Herald/Times Tallahassee bureau

November 05, 2016

Murphy camp responds to questions about Al-Rashid donations

via @learyreports

Patrick Murphy's campaign, at our prodding, responded this afternoon to questions about the candidate's in-tandem political donations with friend Ibrahim Al-Rashid, who may be the subject of a federal investigation.

Here is spokesman Joshua Karp's response in full:

"Patrick makes donations to people who he supports for public office. Some of these donations have been at fundraising events or in response to invitations.

While this has been a topic among right-wing bloggers, I don't really see what this story is about.

http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/patrick-murphys-political-career-rose-wings-scheme-and-his-rich-saudi-friend

http://freebeacon.com/politics/patrick-murphy-used-saudi-donor-network-gain-favor-florida-democrats/

The list you are looking at lacks a lot of context...

Mitt Romney received $81,650 in donations from South Florida on 11/30/07.

Charlie Crist received $81,708 in donations from South Florida on 3/18/10.

Keith Fitzgerald received 68 donations on 6/29/12 and 6/30/12, with the vast majority coming from Florida.

Murphy and the Rashids donated to Steve Israel nearly two weeks apart.

The DCCC received 552 donations on 2/25/11.

Senator Nelson received $26,000 in donations from south Florida on 1/20/11. Stephen Bittel, a well known Democratic fundraiser, donated to Nelson on this date."

--ALEX LEARY, Tampa Bay Times

November 04, 2016

Hillary for America spends $50K on late media buy for Florida's U.S. Senate race

6a00d83451b26169e201b8d234bb92970c-800wi@ByKristenMClark

Five days before Election Day, the campaign for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton dumped $50,000 into a media buy for Florida's U.S. Senate race -- both in support of Democrat Patrick Murphy and against Republican incumbent Marco Rubio.

The expense on Thursday by "Hillary for America" was reported late Friday in a disclosure report to the Federal Election Commission, according to ProPublica's FEC Itemizer, which tracks campaign finance filings.

This marks the first time Clinton's campaign has put any direct funding behind Murphy, the Democratic Party's long-time hope tasked with unseating Rubio.

Last month, Clinton's campaign said it would be sending $6 million in all to help down-ballot Democrats in key swing states. However, it wasn't revealed at that time whether Murphy would benefit from that or by how much.

It was not immediately clear what Clinton's money would exactly be used for in the final days of Murphy's campaign. (Fifty grand can't buy a lot of TV time in a state like Florida, where ad slots are expensive.)

Clinton has helped elevate Murphy's candidacy in the past few weeks, as polls showed the two-term Jupiter congressman continued to struggle with statewide name recognition against the nationally known Rubio even as Election Day drew closer.

Since mid-October, Murphy has spoken at several of Clinton's campaign rallies in Florida -- including a handful this week -- sometimes ahead of Clinton herself and other times ahead of high-profile surrogates, like President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden or vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine.

Photo credit: Patrick Farrell / Miami Herald

Patrick Murphy won't return donations D.C. newspaper says are tied to FBI probe

Murphy2_1stdebate_1017_ap

@ByKristenMClark

Capitalizing on a controversy affecting Democrat Patrick Murphy's U.S. Senate campaign less than a week from Election Day, Florida Republican Party leaders want Murphy to return what they call "tainted donations" that a Capitol Hill newspaper reported are the subject of an FBI investigation.

But Murphy's campaign told the Herald/Times on Friday that the Jupiter congressman has no plans to.

The Hill reported this week that federal investigators are looking into allegations that Murphy donor Ibrahim Al-Rashid -- the son of a Saudi billionaire whom Murphy first met in high school -- orchestrated a "straw donor" scheme to boost Murphy's first run for Congress in 2012. The accusations originated from the Senate Leadership Fund, a GOP super PAC that filed a formal complaint in June and is spending $15 million on ad time this fall to attack Murphy and support Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio.

The Hill noted that Murphy himself is not under investigation, and Murphy's campaign has said repeatedly this week -- in the original story and subsequent media interviews about it -- that neither Murphy nor anyone from his campaign has been contacted by the FBI.

Seeking to link Murphy's (unrelated) controversy with that of the FBI's probe into Hillary Clinton's emails, Republican Party of Florida chairman Blaise Ingoglia said in a statement Thursday: "Floridians are tired of the Democrats and their concurrent FBI investigations. ...  It’s time for [Murphy] to return all of the donations tied to the alleged straw donor scheme and finally end his track record of shady campaign contributions."

Murphy's campaign says it's not going to return the money -- citing the political motivations of both RPOF's request and the Senate Leadership Fund's complaint.

The campaign also noted -- in explaining its decision to the Herald/Times -- that The Hill's report is based on unnamed sources and not, what the campaign would deem, information that proves definitively an FBI investigation is ongoing or that the donor scheme even happened. Murphy's campaign added that it doesn't dispute the facts in The Hill's story, although the congressman downplayed it Wednesday, telling reporters: "There's nothing in there."

"There is no investigation into Patrick Murphy, as The Hill reported. We haven't been contacted by any authority about this issue," Murphy spokesman Joshua Karp reiterated in a statement Friday.

Murphy -- as recently as this week -- has agreed to donate other past contributions associated with controversy, though.

For instance, on Monday, Murphy's campaign said he would donate to the U.S. Treasury nearly $22,000 in contributions Murphy received from a Boston Law firm that was exposed by The Boston Globe over the weekend for allegedly engaging in a different type of donation scheme.

Last spring, Murphy also said he'd given away $16,000 in direct contributions from Al-Rashid after the Senate Leadership Fund publicized the fact that Al-Rashid had pleaded guilty in 2014 to an assault charge against his wife.

Murphy's campaign said those two examples are different because, in the latter situation, it involved proven criminal charges or, in The Globe's case, "a thorough investigation by a widely respected newspaper."

Photo credit: AP