Republican Scott Sturgill is making waves with accusations that Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., abandoned her constituents and “spent thousands on a campaign fundraiser in Washington as Hurricane Irma passed through Central Florida.”
Sturgill is the frontrunner to become the GOP nominee thanks to his money and, no doubt, to his branding ability. He has launched a website, released a video, and started a hashtag to label her “Steakhouse Stephanie.”
It would be an absolutely brutal gut punch — if it were completely true.
“While the folks back home were literally in the dark, their congresswoman wasn’t in the aftermath of the storm lending a helping hand because she was busy at an insider steakhouse in DC empowering the extreme partisans and dark money special interests that want Nancy Pelosi back in charge,” Communications Director Abigail Hirn said in a statement.
For proof, the Sturgill campaign points to a $3,200 payment to Charlie Palmer Steakhouse dated on Sept. 13. But Murphy didn’t host a fundraiser that day. She was busy meeting with President Trump at the White House to discuss federal aid for Floridians rebuilding after the storm. A photo shows her sitting one seat away from the president and, in an official press release, she praised the meeting as an “opportunity to urge the President to support Hurricane Irma relief.”
Murphy did host a fundraiser. But it was actually about a week earlier, on Sept. 7, according to an invitation obtained by the Washington Examiner.
Asked if they would quit the “Steakhouse Stephanie” attacks because Hurricane Irma didn’t make landfall until Sept. 10, and because Congress was still in session and Murphy was still in D.C. on Sept. 7, the Sturgill campaign demurred. “She should’ve been in the district,” Hirn told the Washington Examiner. “No excuses, no exception.”
“While everyone was boarding up their windows and scrambling to find water, Stephanie Murphy couldn’t be bothered to postpone a political fundraiser, even though everyone knew Irma was on the way a week in advance,” Hirn argued before adding that “all local municipalities were preparing in one way or another for this storm by the 7th.”
Murphy wasn’t exactly sitting on her hands before the storm hit, though.
From her Capitol Hill offices, she urged constituents to “make a plan” and to “take the warnings and directions from local officials seriously.” She shared emergency information and preemptively set up a toll-free hotline for anyone who needed help with federal agencies “during/after Hurricane Irma.”
Before the storm, Murphy headed to Florida when Congress recessed. She filled sandbags at Lake Mary City, toured an emergency operations center in Seminole County, and encouraged constituents to volunteer because she and her constituents were “All in this together.” Murphy wasn’t shy about any of this and made sure to update constituents on the interaction between federal, state, and municipal government during a Sept. 8 press conference with the mayor of Orlando.
After the storm, Murphy shared information about debris, made a big deal of clearing some of the downed branches herself, and shared information about how to obtain federal resources. Like many who were in the path of the storm, her own family lost power during the aftermath. Murphy even snapped a picture of her daughter playing cards in the dark to pass the time.
Maybe Murphy should’ve flown out immediately Thursday night or even earlier, like Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Bill Nelson, D-Fla. But at most her Florida colleagues beat her home by a couple of hours. Come Friday, she was far away from any steakhouse and filling sandbags.
