U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy has been going on the offensive against his U.S. Senate primary opponent, taking advantage of recent bad headlines about U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson's controversial hedge funds.
Grayson also has shown his teeth, attacking Murphy for money a super PAC that supports him took from a businessman who would have benefitted from legislation he co-sponsored.
Murphy, D-Jupiter, has called for Grayson to shut down the hedge fund after a Feb. 11 New York Times investigation showed his work for the fund interfered with his congressional duties and he advertised his international trips, some of them as a congressman, to solicit business. The House Ethics Committee said Monday it is investigating Grayson but didn't say what the content of the investigation is.
Murphy took the latest jab at his Democratic rival during a Sunday interview with NBC6 Miami, which covers one of the state's largest Democratic strongholds in South Florida. Murphy questioned whether Grayson was trying to evade taxes by setting up hedge funds in the Cayman Islands, a known tax haven, even though he's closed those branches. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid earlier this month called on Grayson to drop out of the Senate race. Grayson denies using his office for personal financial gain.
Grayson, of Orlando, is known as an aggressive campaigner and has gone on the offensive against Murphy since he entered the Senate race in July. He has attacked Murphy on the campaign money he's taken from Wall Street, his vote for a bill calling for a halt to accepting Syrian refugees last year, among others.
One of Grayson's latest jabs was over $50,000 the pro-Murphy super PAC Floridians for a Strong Middle Class took last year from a company affiliated with a Palm Beach County developer. Nicholas Mastroianni II has raised more than $1 billion for projects through the EB-5 visa program, in which foreigners can get a green card in exchange for investing at least $500,000 in the U.S. and creating at least 10 American jobs, Fortune magazine reported in 2014.
Murphy was one of seven bipartisan co-sponsors to a 2014 bill that would have exempted the program from congressional reauthorization every five years and made it permanent. The bill died, and Murphy didn't co-sponsor a version filed in 2015.
Murphy's campaign declined to comment on the EB-5 issue and instead sent a statement on Grayson's hedge funds.
"Mr. Grayson needs to come clean with congressional investigators and owes his constituents an apology for failing to put them first," Murphy said in the statement.
The U.S. Senate primary will happen Aug. 30 and the general election Nov. 8. Also in the Democratic race is Palm Beach County lawyer Pam Keith.
U.S. Reps. David Jolly and Ron DeSantis are running against Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera and Orlando businessman Todd Wilcox for the Republican nomination. Incumbent GOP Sen. Marco Rubio isn't seeking re-election to run for president.