September 13, 2007 by Dan.

Patrick’s interview with Emily Rooney aired Tuesday on WGBH’s Greater Boston program at 7pm. Channels 2 and 44. You may watch the interview here or by using On Demand, clicking on the Local section of your menu.

Patrick answered questions about fundraising, his proposed Shared Sacrifice Act, and his plans for a truly universal system of health care. It appears that members of the media are beginning to recognize the uniqueness of Patrick’s message…

Look for Patrick to further distinguish himself in tonight’s interview with Lowell Sun’s political editor Jim Campanini at 7PM. To participate in the call-in show, you may dial (978) 364-8255.

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September 10, 2007 by Dan.

Based in California, the Quality News Network has affiliate radio stations all across America, including two based in Massachusetts–one in Marlborough and the other in Haverhill. Patrick spoke today with Tony Seton, an award-winning broadcast journalist and host of the program, America Back on Track. The entire show can be heard here. Patrick’s interview begins about halfway through the link.

It’d be great if the press here in our district recognized the creativity, intellect, depth of message, and depth of character that Patrick has shown in his campaign, and that others, such as QNN, NPR, and Mark Shields, have already realized. My fear is that the press here has either

1.) recognized these in the long conversations Patrick has carried with them and decided not to give him ink or validation because of editorial choice, or

2.) worse, that they are unable to distinguish for themselves what a true, viable candidate looks and sounds like.

Emblematic of the press Patrick has received from the local papers, please consider this campaign anecdote. When I first released Patrick’s Shared Sacrifice proposal to the press, I telephoned a reporter at the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune. I explained the nature of the proposal, asked for an email to forward our official literature, and promptly emailed this reporter. Before our conversation had ended, the reporter had promised he would call soon after he had read through our text and promised, too, to interview Patrick regarding the bill. I thanked him. Not more than five minutes later I received a call, and answered thinking it was the reporter. It was not. I heard a different name. But the caller was from the paper, so my next thought was that the interview had been delegated or relegated depending on how you think of these things. But the call was not from a reporter, but from a salesman from the newspaper’s advertising department. Again, I call on you, the reader to make your own judgments here.

Eventually, the Eagle-Tribune did report on the proposal, but it was relegated to the bottom of the pile, butchered in all senses of the proposal (like when the report claimed it taxed the very population it actually exempted), and gave only a small nod to the fact that a sitting congressman decided to sponsor a version of it. The proposal was described so inaccurately that there were corrections for the corrections, and our own words were finally used to describe the bill. And this is just the surface of it. I’ll have to save the rest for a best-selling book. There’s certainly enough material for it.

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September 10, 2007 by Dan.

For those of you expecting Chet Curtis to interview Patrick last Thursday, you may have been heartened by Chet’s ability to appear slimmer and more youthful. It was neither the effects of TV nor of medicine. Nor was it, in fact, Chet. Gone was the oak round table and its familiar host. In one day, the pleasant set that Tsongas and Ogonowski had been afforded was being demolished. They were, as we in the trades say, “demo-ing” the old set as Patrick was responding to questions on the war and health care in the press room next door, amid the milieu of many keypad and mouse clicks.

You may draw your own conclusions from this bit of intimate knowledge. But more importantly, for those of you who missed it, you may find a video clip of Patrick on www.necn.com or may find this video on our multimedia page within the next few days.

Our campaign has been very busy this past week. Patrick is likely to appear on Greater Boston tomorrow night and he has many speaking commitments at local universities and high schools planned. He will participate in all the debates and he will be actively campaigning throughout the district. This is more than a two-person race. We hope to prove that in these coming weeks.

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September 6, 2007 by Dan.

And I look forward to Patrick proving that. More to come tonight.  Until then, I welcome your comments.

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August 30, 2007 by Dan.

Well, judging by the turnout at last night’s whiffle ball tournament, candidates Eileen Donoghue, Jamie Eldridge, and Patrick Murphy will do just that. What happens when they swing is a different story–Patrick cleared the first pitch he saw over the high center field wall at Alumni Field.

Eileen, in the “primary” game, where her campaign took on Eldridge’s, pitched against Eldridge himself, and struck him out on three pitches. And while Jamie’s self-given title of Progressive Democrat may be apt, the “Hit Dog” or “Sultan of Swat” would not be.

A sly Eileen also may have thrown a curve at one point. And while she did not bat herself, she had what seemed to be the Lowell Little League all-stars playing for her. Her campaign took the primary game.

In the championship game, Patrick spotted our team to a 1-0 lead on the first pitch thrown. I singled afterwards, and it seemed, with the talent on our staff, we were headed for a rout. But, here come my excuses for a 4-2 loss–we came in cold. Eileen’s campaign was warmed up; I think they began drills at around 5pm for an 8pm start. Accusations of weighting the bat were also made. There were a lot of four and five footers running around jacking home runs out of the park. For decorum, I didn’t have them pee in a cup. But I have my doubts.

We were slightly redeemed in the consolation game, when we took on the Progessive Democrats. While they were dreaming about trade policy, we capitalized on their careless fielding and reigned in more runs than we could count.

All in all, we had a great night under the lights, on the fresh-cut grass, under a near full moon. We owe a lot of gratitude to the City of Lowell and Commissioner Tom Bellegarde for making this happen on relatively short notice. I also want to thank Eileen, Jamie, and their staffs for participating, and to some of Niki’s staff who showed up as well. It goes back to what Patrick said in his two minute remarks at the Phillips Academy debate:

Competition is a fact of life on this planet: from something as small as a political campaign to the wider realm of international relations and wider still, to the very survival of all species. But it is often misunderstood. There are those that believe our success must be gained through another’s loss, that competition must mean seeking the defeat of one’s competitors. Yet if we learned our etymological lessons, we would know that the word “competition” comes from the Latin “com-petere”, to strive with, to strive together. In other words, competition is more about cooperation in order to bring out the best in each other–not mutual destruction, not simply survival of the fittest, but mutual survival through striving to become fitter, and by learning how we may all-all people and all species-again fit and live in this world together.

Out of competition, many winners may be bourne. We certainly had a fun, stressless night.

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August 25, 2007 by Dan.

Patrick has stated from the start of this campaign that he would not accept any donations—large or small—thus asserting his belief that these funds are unnecessary for a campaign with a deep reserve of ideas. He will contribute no more money to his campaign than what an individual can contribute to another’s: $4,600 (though still no small sum). While others scramble to raise millions of dollars for their own campaigns, Patrick has chosen to work harder, sacrifice more, and to earn the privilege of representing his fellow citizens in Congress. This is the kind of public servant we can expect him to be if elected.

As we approach another election cycle in 2008 in which billions of dollars will be spent, Patrick believes the time is now to send a message that there are other, more important causes on which to spend that money and actually achieve the changes that politicians purport to support. In this spirit, Patrick asks that his supporters donate to these local organizations that work daily on some of the issues most important to him. We hope you can help our campaign for positive change in the lives of our people, and the life of this community. Thank you.

***Just to add to this post. We have chosen six different local charitable organizations worthy of your support. Patrick and I have at some point spent time on a few of these, and hope you choose one that addresses a concern most important to you. Any donation, from a dollar up, is helpful–though we know and acknowledge that many of the people that support our campaign, or who would support our campaign, are already altruistic by nature.***

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August 24, 2007 by Dan.

Well, the video is not great, but the sound came through fairly well. This clip is of the two minutes the League of Women Voters would have us and you believe was generously given to Patrick–an offer that, one member told Patrick, the League, a non-partisan group, weren’t obligated to give. Well they were not. But if the League’s main aim and message is the spread of democracy to all the voiceless corners of society, their restrictions on Patrick’s speech in last night’s Phillips Academy debate are certainly not consistent with that goal. Since Patrick’s first speech in Acton, a speech that was unabashed in pointing to flaws in the League’s logic, we’ve had several conversations with members that were concerned we misunderstood the purpose of their debates. They assured us we would be given full time after the primary. We understood that well. We understand well, also, that inclusion later does not justify exclusion now. It’s a “tacit ratification” of the party system, and of two, non-public entities that together do not even hold a majority in this district. It creates a bias in the minds of those that attended, and those that have followed the debate and the race, that there is something peculiar, different, minor, about the candidates who were not able to speak. Well there is something different about Patrick, and it’s not a minor thing, it’s substantial, and I’m afraid it’ll be missed if organizations like the League misunderstand what turns the cogs of democracy–the speech of all its people.

The clip may be found on youtube.com.

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August 22, 2007 by Dan.

Last night Patrick attended a debate sponsored by the League of Women Voters. Because of the institutionalized lunacy that voters must identify themselves as a member of a party to fully participate in democracy, the League gave Patrick, an “unenrolled” independent two minutes for a statement. My request for an extra minute was emphatically denied. If a rule was enforced–that no candidate may repeat a catch phrase, anecdote, charges baseless or otherwise, and commonplace things in general–the League could probably find a few more minutes, though there would hardly be a debate. Many people in attendance agreed that Patrick used these two minutes to great effect, questioning the self-proclaimed non-partisan organization and “saying more in that short time than many [party] candidates did all night.”

Patrick returns to his high school Phillips Academy in Andover for the second “debate” sponsored by the League, this time to address foreign policy. Stop by Cochran Chapel at 7:30PM this Thursday, August 23rd. It should be an interesting reunion, and a lively two minutes.

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August 14, 2007 by Dan.

Today, Patrick submitted more than the requisite number of signatures to be included on the October 16th General Election ballot. We’d like to thank the many volunteers, family, friends, and new friends who helped collect the signatures and talk with voters of the Fifth about Patrick’s candidacy. We are looking forward now to the next two months of campaigning and are planning some interesting things to gain a wider exposure. We hope you stay tuned.

For all of you who signed Patrick’s papers, thank you. Yours was both an affirmation of our democracy and an act of welcomed goodwill. Among the many signees, we’d like to especially thank Rep. Jamie Eldridge and Mrs. Cellucci, Paul’s mother, for proving that goodness knows no party lines.

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August 11, 2007 by Dan.

After work yesterday, Patrick and I took my truck up Route 3 for the short drive to Nashua. Senator Dodd was meeting with New Hampshire voters at Martha’s Exchange, a local tavern and brewery. The Senator couldn’t have picked a better place; I was hungry and thirsty, having skipped lunch to finish the framing on a roof we’ve been building. I had the Brown ale, Patrick, the “steeplechase” porter, and good burgers. By the time we finished up, Dodd was just arriving with some of his staff. After shaking hands with some of the patrons of the place, Dodd then sat down at a table of voters and local media who had gathered to meet with him. He spoke on a number of issues, including the war in Iraq and his call for greater participation in public service. In his comments at the brewery, and in the previous Democratic presidential debates, we see in Senator Dodd someone who could potentially play an important part in championing Patrick’s “Shared Sacrifice” bill. The general overview of the bill can be found here: http://www.sendmurphytocongress.com/5th-district-massachusetts-end-war.html

On his way out the door, Patrick and I introduced ourselves to Dodd, whose mother was a Murphy, and whose daughter, he told us, he named Grace Mary Murphy. He seemed a genuine guy, a bright and compassionate person, and someone who adds something to that Democratic field of presidential candidates. Patrick passed along his proposal and our good wishes, and the Senator promised to take a look at it. He wished us luck as well and we thanked him. If nothing else, the brown ale and burger was well worth the trip.

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