Grayson out raises, well, everyone
In a Huffington Post piece yesterday, freshman Congressman Alan Grayson (D-FL) talks about the US House candidate who out raised all other House candidates this last reporting period- himself.
Grayson represents the Florida's 8th Congressional district, covering parts of Orange, Lake and Marion counties. In the 2008 election, he scored a major upset by beating incumbent Ric Keller. Since then his seat has been a target for Republicans across the country eager to get the seat back into the R column.
Grayson is no ordinary freshman congressman. In a town that values seniority and tells freshman to keep it quiet, Grayson has done anything but. He is famous for remarks about the Republican healthcare plan, saying Republicans want you to "die quickly". Pundits and Tea Baggers all across the country have said these types of remarks have made Grayson vulnerable to a Republican pick up in the 2010 elections.
Grayson isn't so sure.
"But the House candidate who raised the most money in the entire country during the last FEC reporting period -- $860,000 in three months -- is not a teabagger. He is not boosted relentlessly by Fox News. He's not even a Republican. He doesn't think that the Earth was created 6000 years ago, that President Obama was born in Kenya, or that global warming is a hoax."
The Pundits and Tea Baggers argue nobody really supports this out spoken Congressman and that he does not reflect his constituents. Grayson argues that isn't true:
"This House candidate also, remarkably, had the largest number of contributors. Over 15,000 individuals contributed, many of whom have given time after time, whatever they could. The House candidate who raised the most money did so without French-kissing lobbyists, without flattering the idle rich, and without reaching into his own pocket.
The House candidate who raised the most money, from the most people, is an outspoken populist who tells it like it is on the war, on jobs, and on health care. His website is called CongressmanWithGuts.com. In the 100,000 e- mails that he has received this year, the most common refrain is, "You are saying what I've been thinking."
I know who he is. Because he's me."
Read the whole piece here.
UPDATE: Bruce O'Donoghue, the most recent in a long line of Republicans to file to run against Grayson, is on the Board of Directors for John Stemberger's (booooo!) Florida Family Policy Council. Should be an interesting election!
