Rep. Tim Murphy(R) is the king of 'franking' ($405,454 Last Year)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07127/784003-176.stm

U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy says he wants to have the most communicative office on Capitol Hill.

He's on his way to reaching that goal, according to congressional records. The Upper St. Clair Republican spent $405,454 on printing costs and taxpayer-funded mailings to his constituents last year, significantly more than Western Pennsylvania's six other House members.


The No. 2 spender was Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, who allocated $190,418 for printing and mailings. Rep. John Murtha, D-Johnstown, spent the least: $7,796.

"It's my obligation to inform people about what we do," Mr. Murphy said in an interview last week. "My goal is to communicate."

[blue neen]

1. Murtha has spent a whole lot less and been a lot more effective.

After all, what exactly does Murphy have to communicate? He marches in lock step with Bush, and everybody already knows that.

[bleedingheart]

2. basically he is getting taxpayer funded campaign literature

and that is all it is...

he lives in a heavily democratic district...that could vote him out in a heart beat and he should be targeted....this "franking" may help do that...

[RamboLiberal]

3. I think he's going to get beat this time

After Altmire took out Missy I think the Dems in this area know if they put up a good candidate with some $$$$ resources Murphy will go down.

[I Have A Dream]

4. I hope so. He's such an embarrassment. n/t

[bleedingheart]

8. the problem is that we need to pick one candidate and we need

to raise money at the grassroots level to make sure that we can get money from Washington...

Hafer is running..I am having a houseparty for her on the 29th...

if you are interested you can come to meet her if you like....I can pm you the details..

[spinbaby]

5. We should have put a serious candidate up against him

I forget who ran in the last election but it was a nothing candidate who barely ran a campaign. We could have taken out Murphy.

In other news from western PA, we had our primaries yesterday and I really regret that I didn't change my registration to Republican. If I had, I could have voted against Diana Irey for county commisioner. You may remember that when the b&^%# ran against Murtha last fall, she spent all her time drooling about how wonderful Smirk was.

[I Have A Dream]

6. Yeah, Irey's an embarrassment too. n/t

[bleedingheart]

9. the last three candidates did not have the money and in some cases

the actual ability to run for office...

One was outright embarrassing...the other two were okay but one was too new to politics and the other didn't have enough cash...

[MrMickeysMom]

7. I don't know whether to laugh or cry about the great communicator!

His obligation is to "inform" us, eh? Let me pull part of this little laundry list out of my purse-

1. For the 10th or 11th time in 3 years, I got duplicate letter- one for my husband and one for myself with the exact same in response to Iraq. Stop me if you've gotten the same one. It... makes NO point. Safely, it says... NOTHING.

2. Every electronic or glossy snail mail newsletter contains nothing but the "good news" of Iraq.. you see, there is no bad news...

3. When sending a message to his text webform, you have no real categories that would result in filing "bad news".

4. His claim to fame (being that child psychology book) is no doubt used as the framework for the newspeak he puts into the district newsletter.

5. When pressed, he uses the same clinical examples in an effort to explain why he is an expert about health care administration. In fact, his few ICU trips for psych evaluations speak for very little and he has no grasp of the components of health care delivery system he claims to have.

6. He tends to go through staff to man the free office in Monroeville. The latest one is staffed with a 23 year old who is there to meet constituents when ole doc Murphy gets tired of hearing us complain that no one from his staff takes the constituents seriously. In the case of the 23 year old meeting with me, he had to be reminded of history before 1988, and what NAFTA was. This is a kid who ran for office locally in Westmoreland County.

7. No one is listening.

8. They don't like to keep the DC office answering machine operating late Fridays and during the weekend sometime. Gee, maybe that's why they feel the "District is divided down the middle on all these issues of Iraq, the economy and healthcare.

The fact is, I've never gotten so many insulting "communications" in my life by a member of congress. What mill are they using to grind these people into running for office on the Republican ticket? Was he this insulting when he was in the State legislature, too?

He can't address any question directed at him honestly. He's only had one public meeting that I've ever been able to see, which was in the beginning of his District tenure. I complained today on Lynn's show (Tony Norman was pinch hitting) about never having a single town hall meeting since then.

I certainly hope we can boot this ass out of office. I've never seen such a brown shirt shill for the neocons of the Bush administration.

[PADEMJES12]

10. naughty tim

naughty tim apparently has adopted the Republican playbook for staffer and constituent treatment... treat everyone like they are inferior. That is why we need Beth Hafer in there.

[MrMickeysMom]

11. I agree that TM needs to go, but I just had a coffee for another contender...

Steve O'Donnel.

He's a local, 61 years old, articulate, has strongly valued getting out of Iraq, returning civil liberties and rebuilding some important Democratic values (to me, and I'd say to most here on DU).

I originally contacted some other candidates who early were in the running, but I'm seriously doing what I can for O'Donnel.

Murphy is schrewd little psychologist, a foot soldier for the Bush Administration. I seriously have tried to communicate with his office and I'm fed up. He is just one more toady for the neo-fascist regime AND HE MUST BE DEFEATED.

Let's do it.

[PADEMJES12]

12. Tim has been frankin...

Issue information isnt all he franks. Dont be suprised if you're on Tim's xmas card list this year.
The cost in mailings is more valuable than his leadership and PA 18 Representation.