Tim Murphy

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U.S. Representative

Tim Murphy (R)

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PA-18

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Positions
Leadership: No leadership position
Committees: House Committee on Energy and Commerce
(subcommittees and past assignments)
Next election: Nov. 6, 2012

Primary challenge: Yes

Incumbent running: Yes

2012 candidates for PA-18

Confirmed: Evan Feinberg, Larry Maggi, Tim Murphy
Possible: None so far
Out: None so far
(more info & editing for PA-18)
On the Web
Official website

Timothy Murphy has been a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District, since 2003.

Contents

Record and controversies

Congressional scorecards

Click through the score to see the records of other members of Congress and full descriptions of the individual votes.

Want to see someone else's scorecard added to the list? You can do it!

Organization 2007 Scorecard
Score - Agree ratio 		2008 Scorecard
Score - Agree ratio
American Civil Liberties Union not avail. not avail.
American Conservative Union 68 - 17/25 not avail.
AFSCME not avail. not avail.
Americans for Democratic Action 40 - 8/20 60 - 12/20
Club for Growth not avail. not avail.
Drum Major Institute not avail. not avail.
Family Research Council not avail. not avail.
Information Technology Industry Council not avail. not avail.
League of Conservation Voters not avail. not avail.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People not avail. not avail.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce 85 - 17/20 not avail.


Iraq War

For more information see the chart of U.S. House of Representatives votes on the Iraq War.

Environmental record

For more information on environmental legislation, see the Energy and Environment Policy Portal

Federal investigation into use of legislative office for campaign work

Allegations by legislative staff members

Murphy was challenged for reelection in 2006 by Democrat Chad Kluko. During the campaign, Kluko’s former campaign manager, Marty Marks, informed the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette of allegations that Murphy had been using his legislative staff in Pennsylvania to perform campaign activities, a violation of House ethics rules and federal law. Following the allegations, the paper interviewed six Murphy staffers. Each of the six acknowledged working on campaign activities and that they were disturbed by Murphy’s conduct. Among their allegations was that: [1] [2]

  • Murphy and his campaign staff frequently used his Mt. Lebanon, Pa. office for campaign strategy sessions, as well as equipment such as the office's fax, copier, camera and filing cabinets for campaign-related materials (rather than his separate campaign office a few miles away).
  • Members of his taxpayer-paid staff were expected to have campaign materials with them at all times when accompanying the congressman, in case he wished to provide them to constituents.
  • When congressional staff members, including unpaid interns, were sent to drop off official literature throughout the district in the summer of 2006, they were instructed to stop only at the homes of registered voters.
  • Multiple staff members from the district office were instructed in December 2005 to devote their time to labeling, stuffing and mailing greeting cards to individuals who were Murphy campaign contributors. The postage and materials were paid by his campaign fund, but several staffers said they performed the functions in the middle of the government workday, rather than on their own time. [3] [4]

In addition to these accusations, staff members also leaked several documents which indicated that they performed campaign-related activities. The leaked materials included:

Emily Campbell, a staff member from June 2003 to February 2006, said, “Congressman Murphy would very often say, 'Don't you people care about your jobs? If I'm not re-elected, you don't have jobs.'" Campbell said that in her view, the use of staff time for holiday cards to donors was the most questionable activity she knew of Murphy directing.

House ethics rules say that no campaign activities may take place in any congressional office, and use of office resources such as equipment, supplies or files is prohibited. The guidelines also say that staff may do campaign work on a volunteer basis, but only outside the congressional office. In addition, they may not be compelled to do such work. The use of taxpayer funded staff to perform campaign work also violates federal law. [9]

When presented with the accusations, Murphy neither confirmed nor denied them. Instead, he said he would seek a congressional investigation of his own conduct. [10] In early November 2006, KDKA News reporter Andy Sheehan confronted Murphy on camera with evidence of the accusations. [11] Murphy took some of the documents from Sheehan and refused to return them. According to the report, the confiscated documents revealed that Murphy's legislative office was doing campaign work. [12]

In 2008, Murphy paid more than $28,000 in legal fees. As of early 2009, Murphy did not pay any legal fees.[1]

Murphy fires staffer

Following his reelection, Murphy fired Jayne O'Shaughnessy, a staffer who had reported the allegations and had allowed herself to be identified in the press. She was dismissed for disregarding a staff prohibition against speaking to the press. [13]

Federal investigation reported by Pittsburgh news station

In December 2006, KDKA-TV of Pittsburgh reported that federal authorities had begun to interview staff for an investigation related to the matter. Mark Carpenter, Murphy's press secretary, initially declined to comment on the report of an investigation, but acknowledged that the lawmaker had forwarded similar allegations to the House Ethics Committee for review. He stated that Murphy "welcomes a robust review of all claims." Bill Crowley, special agent for the FBI in Pittsburgh, would not comment on whether an investigation had begun. [14]

Bio

Background

Murphy was born September 12, 1952 in Cleveland, Ohio. He studied at Wheeling Jesuit University, and received an MA from Cleveland State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. Upon leaving school, he became a practicing psychologist and a professor at the University of Pittsburgh. He also made regular appearances on KDKA-TV television station in Pittsburgh from 1979 to 1995 as a health care expert.

Elected to the Pennsylvania State Senate in 1996 from Upper St. Clair, Murphy served as chair of the Pennsylvania Committee on Aging and Youth and wrote the Pennsylvania Patient Bill of Rights. Despite his stance as a fiscal conservative, he pushed for increased public funding for medical research.

Congressional Career

Murphy ran for the newly redrawn 18th Congressional District in southwestern Pennsylvania in 2002. The district had previously been the 20th, represented by four-term Democrat Frank Mascara. However, the legislature drew the district in such a way that a large chunk of Mascara's territory ended up in the neighboring Johnstown-based 12th District, represented by 18-year incumbent John Murtha. Even though Democrats outnumbered Republicans by 70,000 registered voters, the district had a history of voting Republican. After a legal battle, the courts largely upheld Pennsylvania's redistricting plan after some minor modifications.

In 2002, Murphy ran against Democrat Jack Machek. Murphy, who had high name recognition as a State Senator and former KDKA consultant, outspent Machek by an 8 to 1 margin. Murphy ultimately beat Machek by 20 points. Murphy was reelected in 2004 by a similar margin over Democratic challenger Mark Boles.

2006 elections

In 2006, Democrats nominated Chad Kluko to face Murphy in his November 2006 bid for reelection. (See U.S. congressional elections in 2006) [15] Murphy retained his seat.

Money in politics

This section contains links to – and feeds from – money in politics databases. For specific controversies, see this article's record and controversies section.

Top Contributors to during the 2008 Election Cycle
DonorAmount (US Dollars)
Allegheny Energy$ 20,500
Federated Investors Inc$ 17,000
Mylan Laboratories$ 16,500
Meakem Becker Venture Capital$ 12,600
Bayer Corp$ 12,050
Blue Cross/Blue Shield$ 12,000
CONSOL Energy$ 11,750
Communications Workers of America$ 11,000
Eckert, Seamans et al$ 10,800
Shenango Inc$ 10,400
Source: The Center for Responsive Politics' www.OpenSecrets.org site.
Note: Contributions are not from the organizations themselves, but are rather from
the organization's PAC, employees or owners. Totals include subsidiaries and affiliates.
Links to more campaign contribution information for Tim Murphy
from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org site.
Fundraising profile: 2008 election cycle Career totals
Top contributors by organization/corporation: 2008 election cycle Career totals
Top contributors by industry: 2008 election cycle Career totals


Committees and Affiliations

Committees

Committees in the 110th Congress (2007-2008)

Committee assignments in the 109th Congress (2005-2006)

More Background Data

Wikipedia also has an article on Tim Murphy. This article may use content from the Wikipedia article under the terms of the GFDL.

Contact

DC office
  • 322 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC 20515
    Ph: 202-225-2301 Fax: 202-225-1844
    Webform email
District offices
  • 2040 Fredrickson Place, Greensburg, PA 15601
    Ph: 724-850-7312 Fax: (none entered)
  • 504 Washington Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15228
    Ph: 412-344-5583 Fax: (none entered)
On the Web
Campaign office
  • No campaign website entered.
  • No campaign webform email entered.
  • No campaign office information entered.

Articles and resources

References

  1. ↑ "CREW Releases List of Congressional Members Currently Under Investigation", Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, May, 20 2009.

External resources

See also

External articles

Local blogs and discussion sites


Semantic data (Edit data)


Latitude: 40°17′28.687″N
Longitude: 79°34′30.025″W Latitude: 40°23′3.479″N
Longitude: 80°2′38.081″W

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