Rep. Grayson Won't Hold His Tongue

Politico: Rep. Grayson won't hold his tongue

The standard playbook for new members of Congress includes this time-honored piece of advice: Lay low, focus on constituent service and avoid drawing too much attention to yourself.

But Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) hasn’t paid much attention to the old adage about being seen and not heard. Just two months into his first term, he’s already making a name for himself with a shoot-from-the-lip style and an ideological edge that some argue is ill-suited for the competitive, suburban Orlando seat that he represents.

On Wednesday, Grayson weighed in on the dispute between the Obama administration and Rush Limbaugh, calling the conservative talk show host “a sorry excuse for a human being.” In January, he referred to Limbaugh as a “has-been hypocrite loser” who “was more lucid when he was a drug addict.”

The tart-tongued freshman also skewered Wall Street CEOs with sharp questioning at a recent Financial Services Committee meeting — video of which he uploaded to YouTube — and, in a much-noted personnel move, hired prominent liberal blogger and political consultant Matt Stoller to be a senior policy adviser on his congressional staff.

During the past election, Stoller led efforts to recruit liberal primary candidates to challenge moderate Democratic members of Congress throughout the country.

All of this has earned Grayson a national following of progressive admirers, including prominent congressional candidate Darcy Burner of Washington, who made a late January fundraising appeal praising Grayson for “scaring some of the people who got us into this financial mess.”

“It’s who the guy is; it’s not like he’s changed at all since he’s been elected,” said Democratic pollster Dave Beatty. “It’s who he is. He’s outspoken, and he’s serving the same way he ran.”

In dozens of congressional districts across the nation, Grayson’s approach would ensure a long career in office. The trouble is, Florida’s 8th District isn’t one of them.

While Barack Obama, by all estimates, carried the district in 2008, George W. Bush won by comfortable margins in 2000 and 2004. As recently as 2004, then-incumbent Rep. Ric Keller (R-Fla.) won reelection with 61 percent of the vote.

It’s the kind of competitive district where Grayson’s talk of beating “swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks” might not resonate the way it would elsewhere.

“For someone in Congress, he’s really out there. He comes across as a total ideological flake,” said Florida Republican media consultant John Dowless. “He’s tacking hard left, and he’s trying to become the Robert Wexler of Congress, but Wexler’s in a district where you can do that and get away with it. Grayson’s not in that type of district.”

Indeed, Republicans view his election as something of a fluke, the result of a combination of an unpopular GOP incumbent, a well-financed challenger — Grayson spent over $2 million of his own fortune — and Obama’s coattails.

In 2004, John F. Kerry carried the district’s base of Orange County by fewer than 1,000 votes. In 2008, however, Obama won the county by 86,000 votes, boosted by high turnout among Hispanics and college students. That helped Grayson edge Keller 52 percent to 48 percent.

Grayson’s spokesman, Todd Jurkowski, said the congressman’s populist style is playing well at a time when many constituents are worried about job losses in the service industry and rising home foreclosures.

“People in Florida want to be represented by someone who speaks his mind and is honest,” said Jurkowski. “They may not agree with everything he says, but at least they know what he’s thinking and where he stands.”

Already, several Republicans are considering a challenge, including Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty, who handily won reelection in 2006.

“He’s a conservative Republican, but he’s earned the respect of a lot of people the way he does business on development issues,” said Dowless. “He would be a candidate popular among Republicans and among moderate Democrats as well.”

Another prospective Republican candidate is former state Sen. Daniel Webster, a veteran of two decades in the Florida Legislature. A Mike Huckabee supporter in 2008, Webster has strong connections with the district’s socially conservative base.

Webster and Crotty are close friends, and Florida Republicans believe that party leadership will clear the field to avoid a competitive primary.

One GOP candidate has already announced his intention to run: conservative radio talk show host Todd Long, who failed to unseat Keller in last year’s primary.

Grayson, however, is accustomed to being underestimated — Keller told POLITICO last September that he would “bet his life” on defeating Grayson. The former congressman now practices law at an Orlando firm.

And Grayson has deep pockets and could single-handedly finance his campaign. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, he is the 10th-wealthiest member of Congress, with personal assets totaling over $29 million. Republicans insist his outspoken style will gradually turn off moderate voters.

“My advice to Alan Grayson is: Keep talking,” said David Johnson, former executive director of the Florida GOP. “I think the Republican Party will buy him a microphone and pay for throat lozenges.”