Nope, Democrats aren't bailing on Florida's Senate race

Daily Kos Staff

Wednesday September 07, 2016 · 1:11 PM PDT

2016/09/07 · 13:11

Florida Democrat Patrick Murphy (at left)

Late on Tuesday, Politico reported that the DSCC was cancelling the first week's worth of ads it had planned to run on behalf of Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy in Florida’s Senate race beginning Sept. 20, but it very quickly became clear that this move was nothing like the committee's pullback in Ohio. That's because the DSCC said its money isn't going anywhere but rather will just get deployed closer to Election Day.

Furthermore, the pro-Democratic Senate Majority PAC is still scheduled to head on to the airwaves starting Sept. 13, and the powerful union AFSCME just announced that it's reserving $1.8 million in TV time for Murphy this month. While the NRSC, which is supporting GOP Sen. Marco Rubio’s re-election bid, predictably tried to spin the DSCC's action as Democrats "bailing" on Florida, this is not what "bailing" looks like.

That said, the DSCC could certainly have handled this in a smarter way. Given the dismay caused by the Democrats' ongoing departure from Ohio, the committee would have been wise to get out in front of this Florida story by letting reporters know ahead of time that the move was coming, rather than letting them find out from nameless "media-buying sources." That way, you control the message that this is a reshuffling of resources, not a reduction.

The last thing you want is for stakeholders to get a mistaken impression of your commitment to a race as big as this one. The constituency for this sort of inside baseball is very small, but since those same people control some major purse-strings, it’s also very influential. If there's one thing Democrats excel at, it's panic, so it's always wise to avoid fraying nerves whenever you can.

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