Chris Murphy Question (CT-05)

I'm going to be spending some time with Chris Murphy today, and I'm wondering if you know anything about him.  He's running in the Connecticut fifth district against Nancy Johnson.  It's a competitive race and a real national battleground this year, which is unusual for Connecticut.

So tell me about Chris.



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Re: Chris Murphy Question (CT-05) (none / 0)

How much does he love Lamont? :)


Take Back Cincinnati
by belili on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 03:19:59 PM EST

Re: Chris Murphy Question (CT-05) (none / 0)

Murphy and Lamont campaigns have a great relationship. Their senior staff is extraordinarily incestuous (but I'm not going to get into who's dating whom on a public blog).

The relationship between Lamont and Farrell and Courtney, the other two Dem Congressional challengers, hasn't always been so smooth, although at this point they're all obviously working together.


by ConnecticutHack on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 03:35:15 PM EST
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Re: Chris Murphy Question (CT-05) (none / 0)

Chris Murphy was doing the 435 races thing before it was cool. Right out of college Chris Murphy managed the campaign of an upstart Lawyer named Charlotte Koskoff against the same Nancy Johnson. She raised a little money. The DCCC refused to even take her phone calls, and the Clinton White House was almost actively against her, if not neutrual and yet the race ended up being lost by only around 1,600 votes. IN 1998, he went home to Southington and by sheer work and will knocked off a long term Republican State Rep. In 2002, he ran for an open Senate seat against another long term Republican Rep and beat him to. Ushering in his campaign this year. The one interesting note is that redistricting took his home base of Southington away and yet he still had the gumption to make this challenge. I love Chris Murphy.


by Democraticavenger on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 03:22:28 PM EST

Re: Chris Murphy Question (CT-05) (none / 0)

I'm biased, because I've known Chris Murphy for a couple of years (I'm not working for his campaign).

Chris is a remarkably good candidate, with a real encyclopedic knowledge of people and politics. He is far and away the best natural politician to come out of this state at least since Chris Dodd, except unlike Dodd I think he communicates a very comeplling kind of sincerity. If Murphy wins, expect this kid to wind up in national politics some day.

Chris' story is an open book. He graduated from Williams in '96. Went to work that summer campaign managing for an utterly-unknown placeholder candidate, and somehow got her within a couple points of beating Nancy Johnson. That race -- and Murphy's brilliant strategy in it -- has become classic textbook fodder for Political Scientists who believe that the right campaign can elect anyone.

Went to work in the legislature. Got elected to a seat in the state legislature at 24, while going to law school in his spare tme. Got elected to the State Senate, defeating a Republican in maybe the most conservative district in the state. He's an extremely effective legislator, a real health care policy wonk who hides it well.


by ConnecticutHack on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 03:28:48 PM EST

Re: Chris Murphy Question (CT-05) (none / 0)

I'll add that Murphy has an almost Clintonian skill for making people like him, which is how he, a liberal, has nevertheless gotten the backing of a ton of suburban Republican families.

The race will probably be decided in Danbury, a relatively conservative, wealthy small suburban city that looks toward New York.


by ConnecticutHack on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 03:31:53 PM EST
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Re: Chris Murphy Question (CT-05) (none / 0)

He's very knowledgeable (and progressive) about healthcare.  It's an issue his opponent also stakes a claim to, although she delivered the Medicare fiasco.  I think people would like to hear his ideas about how we can better deliver healthcare in the US.


by Joe Scordato on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 03:32:34 PM EST

Re: Chris Murphy Question (CT-05) (none / 0)

Chris made one of the best comments about the Iraq war.  

When asked how he would fix Iraq, he said something to the effect that the egg is broken, how do you put that back together?  Ask him it's a great quote.

Actually that is what Humpty Dumpty referred to, remember that Humpty is always portrayed as an egg.  It actually refers to King Charles I and the English Civil War of the 17th C.  "All the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put Humpty together again"


by debcoop on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 04:41:08 PM EST

Re: Chris Murphy Question (CT-05) (none / 0)

For what it's worth, I believe his wife is a staff attorney for Connecticut Legal Services.


by MVD on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 04:46:24 PM EST

Re: Chris Murphy Question (CT-05) (none / 0)

I volunteered for Chris' first campaign for State Senate where he defeated long serving State Rep for the open seat.  Chris is great with people and is one of the true democrats holding public office.  I guarantee he will be Senator or Governor Murphy before his time is done.  This is the kind of guy we need leading this new generation of Reps.


by TulaneDem on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 07:41:22 PM EST


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