Free Republic

Gov. Mitt Romney has ended his formal relationship with Mike Murphy, the political consultant who guided Sen. John McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign and helped Romney chart a course for his own potential White House run in 2008. A spokesman for the Republican chief executive said Friday that Romney made the decision after announcing last month he would not be seeking a second term as governor in the fall. Romney paid Murphy’s firm, DC Navigators LLC, $208,000 last year, according to campaign finance reports. “Since Governor Romney is not seeking re-election, there is no campaign to run, and so he has...

Two days after the special election, the California Chamber of Commerce held its post-election powwow in the former Four Seasons hotel in Newport Beach. The talk of the two-day affair was the keynote speech from campaign strategist Mike Murphy, who told the room full of business leaders that they were to blame for the governor’s defeat. Numerous sources in attendance said Murphy chided the business community for not matching the spending by labor unions during the election. And because of the governor’s defeat, Murphy warned the room that they should prepare for some uncomfortable moments in the year ahead. Murphy...

SACRAMENTO - Two top campaign consultants who helped Arnold Schwarzenegger become governor by casting him as a political reformer are taking new steps to profit from their ties to the administration. One year after the Republican governor sought to create a firewall between his administration and his political team, Schwarzenegger advisers George Gorton and Bob White have launched new Sacramento lobbying operations designed to influence state policy. The moves have critics calling on Schwarzenegger, who vowed to set a high ethical standard in Sacramento, to distance himself from anyone who offers him private political advice and then tries to sway...

In the wake of Alan Keyes' decision to run for U.S. Senate at the behest of the Illinois GOP, a cacophony of complaint exploded forth from "those who know better." Three primary themes emerged. First, Alan Keyes is not from Illinois, so his run for office in that state violates the principles of federalism. Second, Keyes has no chance of beating Barack Obama, particularly after the Democratic nominee's star turn at the otherwise low luster party convention in Boston. Third, Keyes is suffering from an overload of conviction. One critic, Mike Murphy, has suggested Keyes is not a rational human...

Why is Alan Keyes a bad candidate? Let me count the ways . . .MY ESSAY berating the Illinois Republican party for enlisting Alan Keyes as their Senate candidate has generated a hefty pile of emails from Keyes's many cyber-fans. Since the letters all ask the same questions or make the same points, I thought a brief response was due. The missives fall into two categories. The first goes something like, "Hey Wise guy, we get the fact that you can't stand AMBASSADOR Keyes, but you didn't give us one single legitimate reason why it is a bad idea for...

Writing for the Weekly Standard's website yesterday, Mike Murphy dripped scorn all over the Illinois GOP and Alan Keyes. He referred to the move as a "thick-headed Grand Strategy" motivated by the unsophisticated thought, "hmmm, they've got a black candidate who can give one hell of a speech … we need a black candidate who can give a fiery speech." In making this supremely insightful diagnosis, one wonders whether Mike Murphy understands Alan Keyes, the pro-life movement, or conservative Christian voters at all. Ask many members of those groups who their favorite conservative is and they'll say, "Alan Keyes." That's...

Illinois Republicans, at one time a canny and crafty lot, have made a stupid error in hiring Alan Keyes to slap together what's left of the party's U.S. Senate nomination and go howling off into battle against Democrat Barack Obama. The Democrat's wunder-candidate will give this race national attention and the local GOPer's thick-headed Grand Strategy — "hmmm, they've got a black candidate who can give one hell of a speech … we need a black candidate who can give a fiery speech" — is likely to set the already tattered Illinois Republican party back at least another five years....

Mike Murphy's run for the District 4 congressional seat has ruffled feathers in the national GOP. He just can't figure out why.   About a year ago, Mike Murphy and his pal J.J. Miller were at his pad in Frisco shooting pool over a few cold beers and lamenting the state of politics. Murphy, who is now 30, and Miller, 33, couldn't find a candidate whose ideas and values meshed with theirs, and the two young Republicans thought their party needed better guidance. "That's when I said he should run for Congress," Miller recalls. "I told him he'd be perfect."...

<p>SACRAMENTO - The political strategist who helped Arnold Schwarzenegger win last fall's governor's race by positioning the actor as an incorruptible outsider is now capitalizing on his own insider access.</p> <p>Mike Murphy, who remains one of the governor's top political advisers, is expanding the West Coast operation of his firm, DC Navigators, which has hired a lobbyist and is touting its links to Schwarzenegger.</p>

In addition to Lamar Alexander's 1996 Presidential campaign, Murphy was also a strategist for John McCain's failed Presidential run.Does that make him a loser? Not exactly. He helped John Engler, Tommy Thompson, and Christine Whitman win governors races in what had been fairly Democratic states.So he clearly has something to offer in that regard. He also worked for Former President George Bush and for Florida Governor Jeb Bush. More ominious is his reputation as a negative campaigner, something that Arnold probably doesn't need at this point. An AP story during the Bush-McCain 2000 Presidential primary race quoted Murphy describing his...