No, Conservative Democrat Patrick Murphy Has No Significant Opposition-- But He Wants Your Contributions Anyway

Crooked father and crooked son,  Patrick and Tom Murphy

Many Democrats found the presence of torturer and in unindicted war criminal Allen West (R-FL) so outrageous that they were willing to contribute to the $4,480,428 campaign lifelong Republican Patrick Murphy ran against him. Murphy, decided to run against West as a Democrat instead of taking him on in the GOP primary. His wealthy Republican father started a PAC, American Sunrise, to funnel money into his son's campaign. In one of the closest races in the country, Murphy won 166,257 to 164,353, even as Romney was beating Obama on the same day 52-48%. Democrats were happy to be rid of West, of course, but many soon discovered they had simply replaced a loud-mouthed reactionary Republican with a sneaky and corrupt conservative Republican (who still calls himself a Democrat-- or at least a "New Democrat"). Murphy has been-- with Blue Dogs Kyrsten Sinema, Cheri Bustos and Pete Gallego and fellow New Dems Sean Patrick Maloney and Joe Garcia-- the worst freshmen Democrats in terms of betraying progressive values by voting with the GOP most frequently.

This cycle, the public polling shows Murphy-- who has eyes on a Senate seat-- beating his underfunded Republican opponent, Carl Domino quite handily. Murphy, a Wall Street whore, has raised $4,607,882 to Domino's $1,020,504. As of the September 30 FEC filing deadline, Murphy had $881,896 cash-on-hand to Domino's measly $84,590. On top of that, a right-wing PAC, the National Association of Realtors has spent $809,606 bolstering Murphy with ads. Their biggest expenditure, though, was $1,887,550 for Mitch McConnell and nearly all the money they are spending this cycle is for extremely right-wing Republicans. Suddenly, though, the DCCC, is signaling they or their "independent" House Majority PAC may come to Murphy's "rescue." They must have some private polling that shows Domino gaining.

In any case, a very shady Steve Israel-connected Blue Dog 501(c)(4) "social welfare organization," which does nothing but politics and funnel money to favored crooked operatives, spent $149,882 attacking Domino this week. Previously their Independent Expenditure Committee had spent money attacking opponents of Blue Dogs John Barrow ($167,600) and Ron Barber ($147,864). They ran positive ads bolstering conservative Cheri Bustos (Blue Dog-IL), John Carney (New Dem-DE), Charlie Dent (R-PA), who has no opponent, Pete Gallego (Blue Dog-TX), Richard Hanna (R-NY), who also has no opponent, Kyrsten Sinema (Blue Dog-AZ) and Ron Barber (Blue Dog-AZ). They announced they will also be running ads in support of Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Nick Rahall (Blue Dog-WV) and Brad Schneider (New Dem-IL).

This is how Center Forward, which dances to the tune of corporate America and Wall Street banksters, describes itself:

America is neither right nor left. Republican nor Democrat. Red nor blue. The mainstream values and principles that will move us forward come from where they always have-- the center. The center is where we leave our political labels and baggage at the door, to find commonsense solutions to America’s great challenges.

Center Forward brings together members of Congress, not-for profits, academic experts, trade associations, corporations and unions to find common ground. Our mission: to give centrist allies the information they need to craft common sense solutions, and provide those allies the support they need to turn those ideas into results.

...Center Forward has its roots with the Blue Dog Democrats, which have always played a critical role in maintaining fiscal responsibility, supporting pro-growth business policies and leading meaningful reform. After the extreme polarization in the 2010 elections the Blue Dog Research Forum was founded to give centrist Democrats and Republicans an opportunity to come together to tackle our country’s biggest problems. Founded by former members and staff of moderate Members of Congress who experienced firsthand how the legislative process became marred by the excessive polarization existing in politics, the organization serves a venue in which good ideas may be elevated, studied, discussed and developed.

One Democratic insider told me this morning that Murphy is in no problem and will win reelection handily and that the reason conservative Democrats are spending money in the district is to run up his numbers so that he will be more viable as an opponent to Marco Rubio in 2016 or-- if Rubio runs for vice president and not for his Senate seat-- the likely Republican candidate, Allen West.