The Club for Growth Cuts an Ad for Alan Grayson

Left/right alliance of the day

Controversial congressman Alan Grayson (D-Fl.) might enter Florida's upcoming Senate race. He just got some unexpected support:

Yep: That's the Club for Growth, a group associated with the Tea Party wing of the GOP, whose name appears at the end of the ad. The Palm Beach Post explains:

The conservative Club For Growth is no fan of liberal Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Orlando, giving him a lifetime 13 percent rating on its congressional scorecard.

But Grayson's potential 2016 Senate candidacy is the only realistic Democratic alternative to Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter, whose fundraising prowess and ability to win crossover votes could pose a problem for the GOP in Florida's pivotal 2016 U.S. Senate race.

So the Club For Growth, which has endorsed conservative Republican Rep. Ron DeSantis in the Senate race, [yesterday began] running statewide TV ads on left-leaning MSNBC and other stations commending Grayson and criticizing Murphy for their stances on reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank.

Ex-Im is a government entity that makes subsidized loans to help exporting businesses. Free marketeers like the Club For Growth and Americans For Prosperity have joined some liberals in criticizing Ex-Im as an example of crony capitalism

So this is partly a political move—the group thinks DeSantis has a better shot against Grayson than Murphy—and partly a recognition that on the Ex-Im Bank and some similar issues, the Club has more in common with populist Grayson than corporatist Murphy.

Not surprisingly, Murphy intends to turn the ad back against his possible opponent:

"The fact that an ultra-right-wing Super PAC that aims to privatize Social Security is attacking Patrick is the clearest sign that he's the strongest candidate in this race," Murphy campaign manager Josh Wolf said.

Comments

[Bill Dalasio]

The fact that an ultra-right-wing Super PAC...is attacking Patrick is the clearest sign that he's the strongest candidate in this race,

Essentially, that's accurate.

[Muhammad Finkelstein (widget)]

Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter

OK, this is Florida we're talking about. Widget, X-Pluto.

[The Bad Captain Madly]

As if I needed another reason to distrust people who attempt to reduce all policy issues to economic ones...

[Spencer]

Aren't all policy issues economic ones?

[Florida Man]

Yes. Since any law is about force that is paid for through extortion.

[The Bad Captain Madly]

To some extent, that may be true. However, in a sane world, you might also want to consider non-economic consequences. I'm not sure a program for selling nukes and biological weapons to North Korea would have a lot of fans, despite the healthy revenues it would generate.

[Mickey Rat]

This is on the sleazy side. They are supporting a horrible candidate on the assumption that he will rough up the bad candidate they expect to face.