Graham spars with Levine, Greene over polls, megamall

Rival candidates continued to zero in on Democratic gubernatorial frontrunner Gwen Graham on Tuesday, with Phil Levine touting a new poll showing him within a few points of her and Jeff Greene calling for Graham to oppose the building of a mall and theme park near her family’s land.

Meanwhile, Graham released a poll showing her lead growing and releasing an ad touting her endorsement by the Everglades Trust that also criticizes Greene for “attacking me personally [and] even falsely attacking my dad, Bob Graham.”

The campaign for Levine, the former mayor of Miami Beach, highlighted Tuesday a new Public Policy Polling survey of 572 likely Democratic primary voters from Aug. 5 and 6 that showed Levine “statistically tied” with Graham, with 26 percent support for Graham and 22 percent for Levine.

Palm Beach billionaire Greene was third with 16 percent, with Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum at 13 percent and Winter Park businessman Chris King at 4 percent.

The PPP poll, which also had President Trump’s disapproval rating at 81 percent, “shows that the race, with nearly 20 percent undecided, continues to be between Levine and Graham,” Levine advisor Christian Ulvert said in a statement.

Levine’s eagerness to make this a race between himself and Graham comes after a July 27 Mason-Dixon poll put Graham 9 points up on Levine.

On Monday, Graham’s campaign released an internal ALG Research poll showing her now with a 16-point lead over Levine, Politico reported.

The poll of 800 likely Democratic voters from July 29 to Aug. 2 had Graham with 33 percent compared with Levine at 17 and Greene at 13. Gillum was at 13 percent and King had 4 percent.

Greene and Graham are also at odds over the $4 billion American Dream MegaMall project in Miami-Dade

County.

Greene attacked Graham over the project in last week’s debate, asking “Is it a difficult decision for you to have your family build a mall in the Everglades?” He also released an ad he claimed showed Graham “tongue-tied in sidestepping questions about the megamall’s environmental impact and the financial gains she stands to make from its development.”

Graham responded with her own ad, criticizing Greene for what she said was an unfair attack on her family and playing up her recent endorsement by the Everglades Trust.

“It’s disappointing,” Graham said in the ad. “Because the truth is I’ve been endorsed by respected environmentalists, including the Everglades Trust. And after 20 years of Republican rule, false negative ads won’t do anything to repair our environment, health care or public schools.”

Greene’s campaign spokeswoman Clair VanSusteren said of the allegation of personal attacks, “No such attack exists. Instead, Greene has highlighted concerns shared by Floridians statewide about Graham’s poor environmental record.”

While The Graham Companies are selling a piece of the land the mall will be built on and have approval to develop an additional 300 acres of land around the area, CBS Miami reporter Jim DeFede reported, the Graham camp took issue with Greene calling it “Graham’s mall.”

“The Graham Companies is not building a mall on the land the company owns east of the Everglades and Turnpike,” Graham spokesman Matt Harringer said in a statement, adding the mall was not in the Everglades and Greene’s ad using the DeFede interview was heavily edited. “And Graham, unlike her opponents, has taken steps to prevent even the appearance of a conflict of interest with the company. She stepped down from the board years ago when elected to Congress and has placed all her holdings in a transparent trust.”

Graham’s campaign then directed fire at Greene for not disclosing how much stock he owns in oil companies “that are trying to drill off Florida’s beaches.”