Chris Murphy

For other people named Chris Murphy, see Chris Murphy (disambiguation).

Chris Murphy
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Connecticut's 5th district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 4 2007
Preceded by	Nancy Johnson
Personal details
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Cathy Holahan

Christopher S. "Chris" Murphy (b. August 3 1973, White Plains, New York) is an American politician, member of the Democratic Party. He is a former Connecticut State Senator, and the current United States Representative from Connecticut’s 5th District (map).

Upon entering the House, Murphy finished his second term from the 16th State Senatorial District that includes the towns of Waterbury, Southington, Wolcott and Cheshire. His successor in the State Senate is Republican Sam Caligiuri.

Representative Murphy is a C-SPAN regular, often playing a large role in talking about the public opposition to the Iraq War along with his freshmen colleagues Paul Hodes and Jason Altmire.

Education

Murphy is a graduate of Wethersfield High School, Williams College, and the University of Connecticut School of Law. He is employed as an attorney with the firm of Ruben, Johnson, and Morgan in Hartford. He currently resides in Cheshire.

Political career

Murphy began his political career as the campaign manager for Charlotte Koskoff’s near upset of Nancy Johnson in 1996. From 1997 to 1998 he worked for Connecticut State Senate Majority Leader George Jepsen.

Murphy was first elected to office in 1998, at age 25; he unseated a 14-year incumbent to take a seat in the Connecticut House of Representatives. He served two terms there, representing the 81st House District in Southington.

Murphy was elected to the State Senate at age 29, representing the 16th District, which encompasses Southington, Cheshire, Waterbury and Wolcott. Prior to Murphy's win, that seat had been held by a Republican for well over a decade. Murphy was appointed Senate chair of the legislature’s Public Health Committee, and also chaired the state task force looking into the re-importation of prescription drugs from Canada. In his term in office, Murphy worked on environmental protection issues and for juvenile justice reform.

In 2005, he authored and legislation establishing the new Office of Child Protection to better coordinate advocacy for abused and neglected children, legislation that passed.

Murphy is also the author and prime sponsor of Connecticut's historic stem cell research act, making Connecticut only the third state in the nation to provide public funding for stem cell research.

2006 campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives

Main article: United States House elections, 2006

Murphy left the State Senate (did not run for re-election) to seek the House seat held by Republican Nancy Johnson. Johnson won her 2004 election by a margin of 22%, garnering 60% of the vote to 38% for her Democratic opponent. (2% went to third-party candidates.) In 2002, Johnson faced what should have been a difficult challenge (running against a fellow incumbent in a redrawn district), but still she defeated her opponent, Congressman Jim Maloney, by a margin of nearly 10%. John Kerry won the district by about 1100 votes in 2004 and Al Gore won it when Johnson represented it as the 6th District in 2000.

New York Times Endorsement

The New York Times endorsed Murphy saying

"Mr. Murphy, a lawyer, is impressive. He has spent eight years in the Connecticut House and Senate. He pushed for the state to adopt a system of campaign finance reform when he first entered the House, long before this was considered an important issue. He helped pass legislation that made it easier for the uninsured to obtain health insurance. He wants to work on the same issue in Congress.

Mr. Murphy believes the war in Iraq has forced America into a false choice between war and civil liberties and has made us more vulnerable to terrorism. He advocates a timetable for withdrawal. Ms. Johnson has supported the war and has voted to continue the current open-ended commitment.

We've supported Ms. Johnson in the past, but are disenchanted with her support of her leadership's radical agenda. Mr. Murphy would be a strong candidate in any race, and even against a seasoned incumbent, is impressive. He would make a superb addition to Congress. We strongly endorse his candidacy."

Johnson Wages "Nastiest Campaign in State History"

Johnson, Connecticut's longest serving representative in Congress with 12 terms in Washington, was battered by national discontent with the Republican Party and hurt by many self-inflicted wounds, including her campaign's decision to unleash a tide of negative ads against Murphy that turned her race into what many called one of the nastiest in state history.

Johnson's defeat is likely to be regarded as a repudiation of the negative ad strategy she employed against Murphy, operating out of a Republican playbook devised by national Republicans. Negative ads by Johnson portrayed Murphy, 33, as tax-happy and soft on terrorism. Her early ads were deemed effective by many observers, including ABC News, but late in the campaign she ran ads claiming Murphy coddled drug dealers and sex offenders. Newspapers such as the Hartford Courant believed these ads had a reverse effect, drawing more voters to Murphy.

National political analyst Chuck Todd, in his last House race rankings of the cycle, stated "Johnson and Murphy have both run outstanding campaigns; Murphy should be considered a potential rising star in the Democratic Party should he pull this off."[1]

Controversy in the 2006 Campaign: Campaign ad against Johnson

One of Murphy's ads against Johnson says a mother contacted Johnson for help to get corrective surgery for her son's cleft lip and palate but was ignored by Johnson . But according to Factcheck.org, this is misleading, saying the mother contacted Murphy first, but never made any kind of contact with Johnson until 3 years later [2]. In an article titled "Johnson Attack On Ad Misfires: Murphy Commercial Is Rooted In Fact," the Hartford Courant defended Murphy's version of events.[3] Johnson demanded that the ad be pulled [4] while the Murphy Campaign insists the ad is true [5].

2006 Election Results

Murphy won the 2006 election, defeating Johnson by a wide margin of about 22,000 votes, 56% to 44%; the only House incumbent to suffer a worse defeat, percentage-wise, was John Hostettler (who lost to Democrat Brad Ellsworth in Indiana). Murphy was able to defeat Johnson handily in spite of the fact that her campaign spent about $5 million to his $2.5 million.

The 5th District has 41 municipalities, including blue-collar cities New Britain, Torrington, Danbury, Meriden, and Waterbury (the largest city in the district), rich suburban commuter towns in the Farmington Valley and north of New Haven, and rural towns in Litchfield County. Murphy won 35 of 41 towns in the district, including many that had voted reliably for Johnson in the past. For instance, in 2004, Johnson took the town of Simsbury by a wide margin, winning 8,798 votes to just 4,246 for her Democratic opponent. In 2006, Johnson received only 5,125 votes in Simsbury to 5.774 for Murphy. In other words, more than 3,500 Simsbury voters who supported Johnson in 2004 either changed their votes or stayed home in 2006.

Once-Republican towns such as Kent and Goshen in Litchfield County went for Murphy, and in large cities such as Danbury and Waterbury, Murphy swamped Johnson by large margins. In Johnson's hometown of New Britain, which she had represented since 1982 in Congress and for a number of years before that in the State Senate, Murphy beat Johnson by a 2-to-1 margin.

Only one impartial public poll was taken in the race, by the Hartford Courant. That poll showed Murphy's lead at 4 points. The size of the eventual margin surprised many local observers.

2008 campaign

Danbury Republican State Senator David Capiello has announced he will challenge Murphy in 2008. [6]

Congressional Career

As a member of Congress, Murphy said that reform of the lobbying system is a top priority[7]In the House of Representatives Murphy serves on the Oversight & Government Reform, and Financial Services committees.

However, Republicans have critcised Murphy for missing what they considered an important vote on lobbying reform [8]. They also point out Murphy had joined a lobbyist managed political action committee and attacked his 2006 opponent for missing house votes. He was also criticised by Republicans for allegedly failing to disclose pork-barrel earmark grants he had sponsored [9] Murphy defended this furious pace of his 2008 fundraising (nearly $800,000 raised in the first six months of his congressional career) as a "necessary evil" to the MeridenRecord-Journal [10]

Murphy has also been criticised for allegedly waffling on the illegal immigration issue, at first claiming not to understand New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's plan to allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses, then claiming to oppose the proposal. [11][12] Murphy had previously supported amnesty proposals to deal with illegal immigration claiming "it would be unrealistic to track down millions of undocumented workers throughout America." [13]

See also

• United States House elections, 2006

External links

• U.S. Representative Christopher Murphy official House site
• United States Congress. "Chris Murphy (id: m001169)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Federal Election Commission — Christopher Scott Murphy campaign finance reports and data
• On the Issues — Chris Murphy issue positions and quotes
• OpenSecrets.org — Chris Murphy campaign contributions
• Project Vote Smart — Representative Christopher S. 'Chris' Murphy (CT) profile
• Washington Post — Congress Votes Database: Chris Murphy voting record
• Chris Murphy for Congress official campaign site