While the majority of the political world was focused on the five Eastern state primaries, a unique debate took place Monday night. Senatorial hopefuls Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) and Rep. David jolly (R-FL) participated in Florida Open Debate for U.S. Senate. They are both vying for the Senate seat vacated by Marco Rubio and both have to win their respective primaries first. Mr. Grayson is challenging DNC backed and former Republican Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-FL) who declined to participate in the debate. Mr. Jolly has lead for the Republican nod against four other candidates. Their primary is in August.
The debate was organized by the Open Debate Coalition and sponsored by the conservative Americans for Tax Reform and the liberal Progressive Change Institute. All the questions were chosen from those that were submitted on-line and received the most votes. It was carried live on C-Span2 and the internet. C-Span2 has rebroadcast it twice and the video of the entire debate is available for any website to post without worrying about copyright. The debate was moderated by Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks Network and Benny Johnson of the Independent Journal Review.