Not so golden....

Top Democrats steamed that party letting Rubio skate 

Bill Clinton, Harry Reid and donors believe the national party should be doing a lot more to take out the GOP golden boy.

By Burgess Everett, Marc Caputo and Kevin Robillard

Tensions are flaring at the highest rungs of the Democratic Party over its decision to pull out of the Florida Senate race, with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and Florida donors pressing to go all out to unseat Marco Rubio in the final days of the campaign, but New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and the party’s Senate campaign arm arguing it’s not feasible because of budget constraints.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee — under the direction of Schumer and its chairman, Montana Sen. Jon Tester — has redirected millions of dollars from Florida to North Carolina, Missouri and Indiana. They reason that those states are both much cheaper to advertise in and offer a more promising path to the Senate majority than Florida, where Rubio has long been favored to defeat Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy.

But Reid and other Democrats believe that defeating Rubio would be the ultimate Election Day trophy for Democrats, given his national stature and the reelection threat he could post to a potential President Hillary Clinton in 2020.

With just two weeks until Election Day, time is running short for Democrats to shift their approach, particularly after the DSCC and Senate Majority PAC scrapped $16 million in ad reservations in the state that would be far more expensive to purchase now. Murphy is getting pummeled by Republicans on the airwaves — the GOP and conservative outside groups are outspending Democratic groups by 4-to-1 — yet the party is poised to leave Murphy to fend for himself in the final weeks of the race.

“I’m grateful for any support. But we’re going to win with or without them,” Murphy insisted in a telephone interview on Tuesday.

Many Democrats see things the other way. Reid is advocating that the party make an eleventh-hour re-entry into Florida, Democratic sources said. Barack Obama has also taken a keen interest in the race, traveling to Florida to knock Rubio last week. He’ll return Friday to visit Orlando.

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) has been pleading with former President Bill Clinton to get Democrats more interested in the Florida contest, sources familiar with the matter said. Bill Clinton himself believes Democrats gave up on the race prematurely and is urging Florida donors to support Murphy.

These Democrats argue that someone — anyone — in the party needs to come through with a few million dollars, perhaps targeting black and Hispanic media, to tip the scales in Murphy’s favor. They believe that Rubio, already wounded from losing his home-state Republican presidential primary, is beatable. Polling on the race has varied but generally shown Rubio with a narrow lead.

The urgency among many Democrats is heightened by Rubio’s status as a rising star in the Republican Party with unquestioned national ambitions. Many Democrats believe the next few days is the best chance to finish him off.

“I understand it’s not Chuck Schumer’s job to worry about presidential politics,” said Steve Schale, who managed Obama’s 2008 campaign in Florida. But “we’re all going to look a little dumb if Rubio wins by 80,000 votes and announces for president in two years.”

Florida donors are increasingly displeased that their money is being shipped out of state to finance other Senate campaigns. Stephen Bittel, a top Florida fundraiser who has hosted Obama at his Miami home, called Schumer recently to complain about the DSCC backing away from Murphy. Bittel said Schumer “thought he could get a bigger return on his money in other races.” Bittel is now considering withholding further contributions to the DSCC unless it helps Murphy and does all it can to protect Nelson in 2018.

“Going forward, we should certainly consider building a big beautiful wall around Florida that the DSCC pays for,” Bittel quipped. “Everyone comes to Florida to raise money and we have been incredibly generous for a long time to the DSCC and we are quite disappointed that they have chosen to not repatriate our capital back to Florida to support Patrick Murphy.”

Because many of the Florida donors are also Nelson supporters, the senator has had to work overtime to keep them happy and pry more money loose for Murphy.

“The Clintons have extra incentive to help Patrick,” said one Florida source. “If Rubio loses his reelection after losing his home state to Trump in the presidential primary, he’s done. No one can survive two losses at home in the same year. Don’t you think Hillary would be happy if she knew that Marco was no longer a threat to her in four years?”

Despite those complaints, no national Democratic groups appear willing to step up. People close to Reid and Schumer downplayed any conflict between the two leaders and longtime allies, though Reid is said to favor a more aggressive approach in Florida than Schumer.

“Reid and Schumer agree that they’d like to find a way to invest in Florida, it’s just that money is very tight,” said Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Reid.

The DSCC recently took out a $15 million loan but had always planned to do so in order to finance existing ad reservations. There is no further flexibility in the campaign arm’s budget, a source familiar with the situation said, though the DSCC has not ruled out targeted spending in Florida in the coming days.

In theory, Schumer could transfer more money to the DSCC; he had $20 million in his campaign coffers at the start of October. But he’s currently spending on ads in his own reelection campaign in the pricey New York market and has already transferred more than $6 million into Senate races.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the pro-Clinton super PAC Priorities USA turned some of its ad reservations in the presidential race into hits on Sens. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire. But there are currently no plans to do the same to Rubio.

“The national Democratic Party abandoned Patrick Murphy,” said Olivia Perez-Cubas, a spokeswoman for Rubio. “Florida already has a senator with a strong record of fighting for them, and that’s why they’re going to reelect Marco.”

As Rubio grows more confident, tension is boiling over among Democrats as they reckon with the possibility of waking up on Nov. 9 to Rubio having survived a Republican wipeout.

“Florida was certainly a winnable race, and if Murphy doesn’t win he’ll have the right to point some fingers,” said a national Democratic strategist.

Tensions are exacerbated by the fact that Murphy’s father, Tom Murphy, gave $2 million to Senate Majority PAC, the top outside group to elect Senate Democrats, which then bailed on the race. (It spent $3 million in Florida earlier this year.) One top fundraiser in Florida said Washington Democrats are holding Murphy’s father’s wealth against him.

“We complain and it doesn’t take long for [national Democrats] to finally say that Patrick’s dad is going to pay for it,” the fundraiser said. “Papa Murphy probably isn’t going to stroke too many more checks. So now the hope is that Mama Clinton can drag him across the finish line.”

Patrick Murphy is trying to avoid the fray.

“I try not to get involved in these politics,” the candidate said on Tuesday.

The pro-Murphy Floridians for a Strong Middle Class just launched an $800,000 buy, one of the few groups helping combat millions from the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Senate Leadership Fund. Neal Roth, another top Democratic donor from Miami, said he was happy he gave money to Murphy’s campaign and the super PAC supporting him instead of contributing to the DSCC.

“The president came here last week and spent 60 percent of his time talking about Hillary and the other 40 percent supporting Patrick Murphy and making the case against Rubio,” Roth said. “For the DSCC to pull its support just makes no sense. They don’t have the president’s back.”

Democrats’ internal polling in the state ranges from placing Murphy within striking distance to as much as 10 points down, according to people who have viewed those polls.

Murphy’s biggest problem is that he’s underperforming Clinton by double-digit percentages with black and Hispanic voters, a Democrat close to his campaign said. Many minority voters don’t even know who Murphy is, the source said. Murphy’s allies believe those voters would switch Murphy with limited efforts.

But it’s getting late. Floridians are voting now and, by midweek, they might already have cast at least 2 million early ballots — more than a fifth of the total number of votes expected in the election.

Some Democratic strategists say that the party should pull some money from ad-soaked Pennsylvania and reallocate it to Florida. But Schumer and the DSCC fear that there are six toss-up states hanging in the balance: Pennsylvania, Missouri, Indiana, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Nevada.

“The goal is to win back the Senate, and with limited resources and seven or eight other races that are just as close or even more likely for Democrats to win, it’s hard to find the resources for a state as big as Florida,” said a person with knowledge of Senate Democrats’ decision-making process.