Obama ratchets up

Obama ratchets up fight to unseat Rubio 

By Sarah Wheaton

If Rep. Patrick Murphy manages a come-from-behind victory in his bid to unseat Sen. Marco Rubio, he may have to say, “Thanks, Obama.”

National Democrats cut bait on Murphy last week, essentially ceding the Florida contest to Rubio as the Republican rose in the polls despite Donald Trump’s decline. It’s President Barack Obama who has come to Murphy’s rescue, touting the two-term congressman during his second trip to Florida in just eight days. And, the White House announced, Obama will head to both Miami and Jacksonville on Thursday.

Officially, Obama is campaigning for Hillary Clinton in the top swing state. But his efforts on Murphy’s behalf appear to be the trailing Democrat’s most significant bit of outside help.

On Friday, Obama called Murphy a “hard worker” in the mold of the Democratic nominee. The president touted Murphy’s work on Everglades restoration and led the crowd of some 9,000 people in the University of Central Florida’s basketball arena in a chant of “Patrick! Patrick! Patrick!”

There was no mention in Obama’s speech of the FBI taking renewed interest in Clinton's emails, which in turn had given embattled Senate Republicans nationwide the opportunity to play some offense after the news broke Friday afternoon.

Instead, Obama talked up Clinton’s experience, reveled in his own record and expounded on the ways in which Murphy was unlike the incumbent.

“Unlike his opponent, Marco Rubio, Patrick actually shows up to his job,” an apparent reference to Rubio’s many missed votes while he was running for the GOP nomination.

“He didn't say that he was supportive of Florida's Latino community but then, when the politics got tough, you walk away from comprehensive immigration reform,” Obama continued. “Unlike his opponent, he actually believes in science and that climate change is happening.”

All that was relatively mild compared to the broadside Obama launched against Rubio the week before.

Just two days after the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee reneged on $6 million in planned spending, Obama traveled to Miami on October 20 and ripped into Rubio for showing the “height of cynicism” in supporting the Republican nominee.

Democratic turnout in early and absentee voting has encouraged party operatives. But Murphy has consistently trailed Rubio in public polling, even if the margin has varied from survey to survey.

Murphy easily won his primary against Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), a race in which Obama also endorsed him. But since then, Murphy has been plagued by low name recognition and –- when his name does get out – by damaging opposition hits on his record in private business

Murphy especially has underperformed with black and Hispanic voters, who his campaign acknowledges have little knowledge of his candidacy. Obama’s trips to Florida to rip Rubio are the best earned media Murphy can get.

Other national Democrats appear to be reconsidering the Sunshine State write-off. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid has been frustrated that his party has given the once, and likely future, presidential candidate Rubio a pass. His Senate Majority PAC on Thursday transferred at least $1 million to a super PAC backing Murphy.

“It’s great to have this kind of enthusiasm, this kind of support – from a sitting president,” marveled Murphy, who had spoken at the rally shortly before Obama. “This isn’t that common, to have a sort of a hand-off happening, a president with these sort of favorables, really unprecedented in recent history.”

In an interview with POLITICO, he said Obama’s help was coming at just the right time, though he stopped short of crediting the president’s attention with any shift in momentum.

“I would say in general you’ve got a lot of people starting to pay attention more and more to down-ballot races,” Murphy said. “My name ID obviously isn’t as high as Sen. Rubio’s. I haven’t run for president. So having this kind of thing is very helpful.”

Murphy’s not understating his name ID problem.

“I just wish that there was more information about him,” said Olga Zhorzholiani, a UCF student attending the rally. Before this, I don’t think anyone really knew that much about him, and he does seem like a nice guy.”

Zhorzholiani said she already voted early, and didn’t want to divulge her choices. “I’m more familiar with Marco Rubio,” she added, “but I don’t support any of his policies.”

Obama’s efforts appear to be a strategic split from Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and the DSCC. White House spokesman Eric Schultz, noting to reporters that he used to work for the Senate campaign arm, said, “I am familiar with how hard it is, how complicated it is to make decisions regarding spending as campaigns wind down. So I’m not going to be in a position to second-guess those decisions.”

But the president, Schultz reiterated, “believes Congressman Murphy should be promoted to the United States Senate.”

Obama has been campaigning aggressively for down-ballot Democrats in recent weeks, working to lasso Republican Senate candidates to Trump even as he touts Clinton in Nevada and Ohio. His campaign schedule next week includes states that are both presidential and Senate battlegrounds, in addition to Florida: Ohio on Tuesday and North Carolina on Wednesday. He’s trying to help Clinton avoid Republican majorities in Congress, which stymied his efforts for all but the first two years of his presidency.

“If you think that the slogan, ‘Vote for us because we’re going to give you gridlock’ -- if you think that’s a good slogan –- then you should vote Republican,” Obama said. But if you care about things like equal pay and raising the minimum wage, he told the crowd, “then I need you not just to vote for Hillary, but I need you to vote up and down the ticket.”

Senate Leadership Fund, a PAC allied with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, is one of several right-leaning groups that’s been hammering Murphy. Its communications director, Ian Prior, was underwhelmed by Obama’s plugs for the Democratic candidate.

“Him giving Murphy a few crumbs at rallies isn’t going to change the dynamic in a swing state where just under half of the voters pulled the lever for Romney,” Prior said. But the efforts might satiate another key constituency, Prior added in an email: Tom Murphy, the candidate’s mega-donor father.

“Let’s not forget that Patrick Murphy’s Republican father has donated well over $100,000 to Obama’s campaign and supportive entities over the years; that doesn’t even include all the money he’s given to the DNC and other Washington Democrat power players,” Prior said. “Looks like the perfect time for Democrats to return the favor, even if it isn’t with outside money.”

Obama, for his part, is also just having fun: he taped a video with the YouTube stars Liza Koshy, Lia Marie Johnson, and Adande Thorne (known to fans as Swoozie) to drill in his early voting message to their millions of millennial fans. And he even got to hang out briefly with Aerosmith on Air Force One as they passed through Orlando.

But it’s not time to declare victory yet, Obama warned, even though recent Florida polls show Clinton ahead.

“You know, sometimes when you get a lead, whether it's in sports or in politics, you start feeling good,” he said. “You start celebrating too early … You start missing some free throws… And next thing you know, you look up, and you let it slip away.”

He added, “See, I don't want y’all feeling too good.”