Longtime Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen looks safe in Florida’s 27th Congressional District, a 53-46 Obama seat in the Miami area, even with Donald Trump on the ballot. Still, Ros-Lehtinen is taking Democrat Scott Fuhrman, the owner of a fruit juice company, seriously enough to launch two TV commercials against him. One spot features the father of a woman who was killed by a drunk driver arguing that Fuhrman shouldn’t go to Congress “after also being convicted of possessing a firearm while intoxicated.” A former police officer delivers a similar message in the other commercial.
As we noted when Fuhrman launched his campaign, he addressed his past right off the bat. In his announcement video, Fuhrman noted that, "When I was younger I made some bad decisions. I drove too fast, I raced cars, and I broke the law. I put myself and other people at risk." Fuhrman has been arrested four times: The most recent and serious incident was in 2009 when he was pulled over and admitted to having two drinks, and police found a loaded handgun in the car. Fuhrman ended up paying a $1,071 fine and performing 56 hours of community service. Fuhrman is now arguing that he's changed and that unlike other politicians, he's being transparent about his past. Of course, few voters pay attention to candidate announcement videos, so Ros-Lehtinen’s ads will be the first thing most of them hear about Fuhrman.
Fuhrman has loaned himself $500,000 so far, and he had a $344,000 warchest in mid-August. Ros-Lehtinen is sitting on $1.8 million, so she can afford to define Fuhrman as a sketchy character before Fuhrman can argue that he’s turned his life around. Still, it’s worth keeping an eye on this seat to see if outside groups sense that Trump could be endangering Ros-Lehtinen, or if these early ads close the book on this race quickly.