PANAMA CITY — A blast from Gwen Graham’s past is raising questions about the way she has presented herself in her bid to regain the Florida 2nd Congressional District seat for Democrats.
Rep. Steve Southerland, the Panama City Republican incumbent Graham is challenging, released an advertisement last week alleging Graham worked as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., more than 20 years ago.
Graham, from Tallahassee, has tried to paint herself as a Washington outsider and campaigned on a platform of putting solutions over partisanship while portraying Southerland as a D.C. insider who puts Tea Party ideals over meaningful legislation. But the ad, which relies on documents researchers found in former Gov. and Sen. Bob Graham’s archive at the University of Florida, calls Graham’s outsider persona into question, Southerland spokesman Matt McCullough said.
Not only has Graham worked on presidential campaigns for three Democrats — her father, Bob Graham; as well as Howard Dean and John Kerry, all in 2004 — but after she graduated from law school at American University in Washington, D.C., in 1988, Graham worked as a lobbyist at a Washington law firm, according to Southerland’s ad.
“These facts in black and white call into question the entire narrative she’s based her campaign on: being a Washington outsider,” McCullough said. “If voters can’t trust Gwen Graham about her resume, then how can they ever trust her to be honest in Congress?”
The documents behind the ad are legally required lobbying disclosures from 1989 when Gwen Graham was Gwen Logan, a first-year associate with the Washington, D.C., law firm Andrews and Kurth, which lobbied on behalf of the Secondary Lead Smelters Association. At least one disclosure had her name on it, and she is mentioned in a handwritten note about a bill that ended up in a committee of which then-Sen. Bob Graham was a member at the time.
Gwen Graham has denied the allegations in the strongest possible terms, telling the Tampa Bay Times, “I was never a lobbyist. Period.” She also provided the Times with a letter from her supervisor at Andrews and Kurth in which he explained Graham was not a lobbyist and the disclosure document should not be construed as evidence she was.
The race is one of the most closely watched in the nation; outside interests are spending big money for both candidates, and observers expect the outcome to be very close. Julia Woodward Gill, Graham’s campaign manager, shrugged off the allegations as the desperate actions of a desperate incumbent.
“Congressman Southerland’s campaign is flailing and resorting to lies because North Floridians are fed up with his Washington way that’s out of touch with our values: shutting down the government, complaining that his taxpayer-funded salary isn’t enough, and opposing the Violence Against Women Act,” Gill said in a prepared statement.
Southerland’s campaign has seized on Graham’s Washington connections and created a political ad from a mock resume for Graham with the stated objective: “To win a seat in Congress by deceiving the voters of Florida’s 2nd Congressional District into believing I am a ‘Washington outsider.’ “