Money Pours in as Attack Ads Fly in Florida's 26th District
*By Justin Chermol*
For Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, Second-Amendment politics are deeply personal.
Mucarsel-Powell, an Ecuadorian-born U.S. citizen, is facing the two-term Republican incumbent, Congressman Carlos Curbelo, in Florida's 26th District. She lost her father to gun violence when she was just 24.
"I'm going to take action on day one and will not stop until we find solutions to protect our kids in this community," she told Cheddar's J.D. Durkin.
Just eight months ago, Florida ー and the country ー was rattled by a devastating high-school shooting that claimed 17 lives and spurred a wave of protests and a national conversation on gun reform.
As Election Day looms, many political spectators have fixed their gaze on Mucarsel-Powell's district, among the most contentious midterm races in the country. Florida's 26th district was among the few Republican-controlled districts won by Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race.
The most recent [poll](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/upshot/elections-poll-fl26-3.html) from The New York Times has Mucarsel-Powell up 1 percent over the Congressman, with a margin of sampling error of 4.9 percent.
Mucarsel-Powell is calling for a four-pronged approach to reducing gun violence: banning military-style weapons, preventing gun show loopholes, requiring universal background checks, and prohibiting those with a history of domestic violence, mental illness, or terrorism, from purchasing a gun.
In a separate interview on Cheddar, Rep. Curbelo said of his efforts on gun reform: "I have a record of working across the aisle to get things done." That includes breaking with some Republicans to support a bill that would allow the federal government to research gun violence.
As for the race ー just six days away ー attack ads have stirred the local drama.
A super PAC backing Rep. Curbelo released a provocative ad featuring a man holding a gun on screen, the kind of message Mucarsel-Powell said is an intimidation tactic.
"The attacks against me have been really shameful," she said. "I think that it's time for Congressman Curbelo to really think about what he's doing to instigate and incite this type of behavior in this community."
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/the-race-for-floridas-26th-congressional-district).
David Levine, elections integrity fellow with Alliance for Securing Democracy, joins Cheddar News to discuss Politico's bombshell finding revealing the RNC's plan to contest the elections.
A survey by the BMO Real Financial Progress Index found that 25 percent of Americans are pulling back on retirement contributions to offset the cost of inflation. This comes as market volatility reduced retirement savings with the S&P 500 shedding more than 12 percent this year alone.
As abortion rights take center stage in courts around the country, so do discussions about reproductive health. Signs and social media posts say things like "protect women's rights" and "her body, her choice," leaving others who need and receive abortions completely out of the picture. The potential end to Roe v. Wade would impact far more people and facilities than you may think. Cheddar News' Baker Machado breaks it all down.
Arkansas is planning to reshape itself by putting a strong emphasis on technology through computer science in the classroom. Governor Asa Hutchinson joined Cheddar News Buffa to discuss the state's efforts to promote itself as a future tech hub. “It gives young people such a huge opportunity for success," he noted. The term-limited governor also touched on the issue of gun ownership, offering up the idea of possibly raising the age limit to obtain rifles like the AR-15 to 21 instead of 18 as it currently stands.
The dating app Bumble has sponsored bills and pushed lawmakers to criminalize the online practice of sending unsolicited nudes or “cyberflashing." Payton Iheme, Bumble's head of public policy for the Americas, joined Cheddar News to discuss why the app was going after the harassing behavior beyond its own platform. "Now, while we went to work internally in the company, and we created something called private detector to automatically blur those images so the user can decide if they want to see them, there's nothing for the rest of the internet," she said. "And so that's why we went to work with these laws."
Constituent service platform Indigov recently raised $25 million in a Series B funding round. Indigov bills itself as a constituent relationship management tool that helps elected officials improve the way they organize, respond to, and engage those they serve. The startup's services are being used by federal, state, and local governments across the country, including the U.S. House of Representatives. Alex Kouts, founder & CEO of Indigov, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
