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Murphy: Lots of shoe leather and hard work
Oct 19, 11:52 AM
Meriden Record Journal
By Jeffery Kurz
Record-Journal staff
In his still relatively young political career, U.S. Rep. Christopher
S. Murphy has proven the beater of the unbeatables.
In 1998, at the tender age of 25, Murphy ousted longtime Republican
incumbent state representative Angelo Fusco. And just two years ago,
Murphy upset 24-year Republican incumbent Nancy Johnson in a bitter,
hard-fought race for the 5th U.S. district.
Now the first-term Democratic incumbent, who has yet to lose a race,
finds himself on the other side of the unbeatable equation, facing
Republican state Sen. David J. Cappiello, the Green Party’s Harold H.
Burbank II and Independent Thomas Winn in his bid for re-election.
But Murphy says it doesn’t feel that way.
“Every incumbent becomes beatable when they stop listening to the
people they represent,” said Murphy. “And that’s what happened 10
years ago with Angelo Fusco, and that’s what happened two years ago
with Nancy Johnson. I hope that I bring to the table a sense of energy
and a set of ideas that people can rally behind. There’s no magic to
why I’ve been able to beat some of these incumbents. It’s because
they lost touch and made themselves vulnerable to a call for change.
“That means my greatest imperative is to be in constant contact and
dialogue with the people I represent.”
It’s Murphy’s hard work in that regard that has drawn the admiration
of David Boomer, who ran Johnson’s campaign two years ago when she
lost to Murphy. Boomer, who also ran Johnson campaigns in elections
she won, worked for former Gov. John G. Rowland, and said Murphy’s
work ethic is similar to that of Rowland’s early career.
“I have a lot of respect for Murphy,” said Boomer, on the phone from
Nebraska, where he is working to support GOP efforts. “He works 24/7,
and so does his staff, and I admire that.”
Boomer said Murphy’s most significant asset is “staying connected to people.”
“People in the 5th District, they know he’s working hard,” he said.
Murphy’s reputation as a door-todoor campaigner was in evidence early
last week, when he spent the afternoon visiting businesses in
downtown Meriden. The congressman voted for the $700 billion
so-called bailout of Wall Street, a rescue plan that provoked
significant voter anger across the nation.
Murphy said he felt “conflicted” about supporting the bailout, but
voted for it in the end because it was better “than sitting on our
hands and doing nothing.”
While the business owners Murphy spoke to that afternoon were highly
critical of the bailout, they weren’t critical of Murphy’s support for
it.
David Zebarth, owner of the Butler Paint & Decorating Center, on
Colony Street, said, “Sometimes you have to let businesses that make
bad decisions go out of business.”
But Zebarth said he felt those in Murphy’s situation were “damned if
you do and damned if you don’t” when it came to supporting the plan.
“I don’t blame him for that,” said Zebarth, “you don’t want to see
people hurt, either.”
The nation’s economic struggles have hit local businesses hard, said
Alfred Rivera, owner of Rivera Jewelry, on West Main Street. “You
just got to hang in there and see what happens,” he said.
“I think $700 billion could have been working for John Doe on Main
Street,” said Rivera, who nevertheless still supports his
representatives.
“Our local guys are pretty decent,” he said.
“I know everybody’s hurting,” Murphy said, later. “But they’re
finding ways to get by.”
Jobs and Social Security
The following day, the 35-year-old Murphy was addressing members of
United Auto Workers 987, local re- tirees from the Meriden General
Motors plant, New Departure, that closed in the 1960s. Murphy told
them that, given the current economic crisis, he’d been studying up on
the Great Depression. Several in the crowd of about 30 said he’d come
to the right place, since most of them had been around at that time.
High on the list of concerns for that gathering was the solvency of
Social Security.
Bristol resident J. Roger Chasse noted that
Republican presidential contender John Mc Cain had supported President
Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security “and putting it on Wall
Street.”
If that plan had been approved by Congress, “where would we be
today?” asked Chasse. “That terrifies people.”
Murphy thanked the group for supporting his “grass-roots” campaign to
unseat Johnson and encouraged them to vote for Democrat Barack Obama
in this year’s presidential election.
“President Bush has stood as a barrier to a lot of changes we want to make,” he said.
Murphy said he wanted to restore the middle class and return
manufacturing jobs that had been lost overseas.
To applause, he told the group that he and his wife, Cathy, had just
had “a little baby.”
“It’s sad to think that for the first time in this country we may not
leave a better world for our children,” he said.
“It makes me work even harder, to try to make government something
people can be proud of again.”
One senior told Murphy, “We depend on Social Security; without Social
Security we are dead.”
“I’m on your side on that one,” Murphy replied. “Think what would have
happened if Bush got away with what he wanted, which was to put Social
Security in the stock market.”
Murphy also told the gathering that he has as much Polish ancestry as
he does Irish, that his mother’s family immigrated to New Britain from
Poland, and that his great-grandfather and grandfather worked in a
ball bearing plant, where wages, health care benefits and pensions
allowed them to provide opportunity for their offspring.
“Without those jobs, that American dream that you can leave a better
world for your child is at risk,” he said later. “That’s why I’m
focused on keeping and growing manufacturing jobs here.”
State Rep. Zeke Zalaski, DSouthington, was on hand to tell the crowd of auto
worker retirees about working with Murphy when the congressman was
leading college professor Charlotte Koskoff’s effort to unseat Johnson
in 1996, a race Koskoff lost by a whisker.
Campaign workers wanted to review a Johnson ad on video, but “Chris
said he didn’t have a TV,” Zalaski said.
“I have one now,” said Murphy, eliciting laughter.
Zalaski said afterward that he thought it was running the Koskoff
campaign that proved to Murphy that Johnson was vulnerable, and fed
the impulse that resulted in his successful challenge two years ago.
“So I think he had it in his blood all those years,” Zalaski said.
Murphy grew up in Wethersfield, attended Williams College and the
University of Connecticut School of Law. He lives in Cheshire, and his
son, Owen, is now seven weeks old.
His first elected office was on the Southington Planning and Zoning
Commission, in 1997. A year later, he beat 14year incumbent Fusco in
the race for state representative.
In Congress, Murphy serves on the finance services and oversight and
government reform committees.
In his first of four scheduled debates with Cappiello, held last week
in Waterbury, Murphy was often on the defensive about his two years
in Washington. Cappiello hit him hard on immigration, income taxes,
the bailout, off-shore drilling and earmarks. So much so that Murphy
complained that his opponent was focusing on criticism and failing to
offer any ideas of his own.
At one point, countering Cappiello’s accusation that the
Democrat-controlled Congress planned to raise taxes beginning in 2010,
Murphy called it “a wonderful Republican talking point, but it’s
absolute fiction.”
“I’m not going to listen to Republican talking points that simply
aren’t true,” he said.
As the debate wore on, Murphy was able to pre-empt many of his
challenger’s accusations, though some remained stinging. Cappiello,
for example, said, “If you elect me, I am not going to take any money
from the special interests in Washington, D.C.” He reminded Murphy
that two years earlier he’d made special interests a major accusation
against Johnson, but was now guilty of the same fault.
Murphy said no money he’d taken had influenced his vote.
The back-and-forth was so contentious Cappiello bypassed his closing
remarks to continue an argument, which let Murphy appear more poised.
“I hope the rest of the campaign isn’t like this,” said Murphy, in
his final remarks.
Back in the district
Since returning from Washington following the bailout vote, Murphy
has repeatedly said that he sees opportunity arising out of the
current financial crisis.
Asked recently to elaborate, Murphy said the nation’s health-care
system and energy policy had already put the economy in a weak
position.
“I see an opportunity in this crisis because it allows us to see how
important to an economic turnaround health-care reform and energy
reform and investing in our urban centers is,” he said.
“This country has been stalled for a half a century on the issues of
health-care reform and energy reform and it may just take an economic
jolt like this to help us understand that we can’t continue to have
the most expensive health-care system in the world and get mediocre
outcomes.”
Murphy supports national universal health care that remains employer
based but expands on already existing insurance pools, such as
Medicare or the federal employees system.
“I don’t understand how the richest country in the world can’t
guarantee health care for its citizens,” he said. Murphy wants an end
to the war in Iraq, and continues to support a set time, of about 12
to 18 months, for returning troops.
“In that time the Iraqis will be forced to take responsibility for
their own government,” he said.
The accomplishments during the past two years of which Murphy is most proud include legislation that increases fuel efficiency standards and limits the interest rates banks can charge for student loans. He links both to the ability of
Congress to bypass special interests.
“I think we’ve made some great progress in part because we’ve pushed lobbyists outside the process,” he said.
He’s also proud of his work in ethics reform, though he says more
needs to be done.
“I went to Washington to change everything about that place, and to no
one’s surprise we weren’t able to do it all in two years,” he said.
“Washington is a very broken place. That’s been made especially
difficult because of a president who remains firmly committed to the
status quo.
“I’m eager to be in Washington with a president like Barack Obama,
who’s committed to making real change.”
