Chris Murphy

Christopher Scott “Chris” Murphy (born August 3, 1973) is the outgoing U.S. Representative for CT's 5th congressional district, serving since 2007, and the United States Senator-elect for Connecticut, who will be sworn in on January 3, 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served in both chambers of the Connecticut General Assembly, serving in the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1999 to 2003, and in the Connecticut Senate from 2003 to 2007. He is the current youngest Senator.

Early life, education, and career
Murphy was born on August 3, 1973, the son of Catherine (née Lewczyk) and Scott L. Murphy. He is of [Irish people|[Irish]] and Polish descent. Murphy's father is the managing partner of Shipman & Goodwin, a Hartford law firm, and his mother is a retired ESL teacher from the Hamner Elementary School in Wethersfield. Murphy has two younger siblings, as sister, Susannah, and a brother, Ben.

Murphy is a graduate of Wethersfield High School, Williams College, and the University of Connecticut School of Law. In 1996, Murphy was campaign manager for Charlotte Koskoff's unsuccessful campaign for the House against Nancy Johnson in 1996; whom Murphy himself would unseat Johnson himself. From 1997 to 1998 Murphy worked for Connecticut State Senate Majority Leader George Jepsen.

Murphy was first elected to office in 1997, when he won a seat on the Planning and Zoning Commission in Southington.

Connecticut legislature
In 1998, at age 25, Murphy unseated 14-year incumbent Angelo M. Fusco to serve in the Connecticut House of Representatives from the 81st district. After two terms, Murphy was elected to the Connecticut State Senate at age 29, representing the 16th district. Before being elected to the Senate, his seat had been held by a Republican for more than a decade. Murphy was appointed Chair of the Public Health Committee, and also chaired the state task force looking into the re-importation of prescription drugs from Canada.

In 2005, Murphy authored legislation establishing the new, Office of Child Protection, to better coordinate advocacy for abused and neglected children. Murphy also wrote Public Act 05-149, an act permitting stem-cell research while prohibiting human cloning. The act, signed into law by Governor Jodi Rell made Connecticut the third state in the nation to permit taxpayer-subsidized stem-cell research.

Elections
Murphy chose not to run for re-election to the State Senate in order to seek the U.S. House seat held by Republican Nancy Johnson. In order to challenge Johnson, Murphy moved from Southington to Cheshire. Murphy was elected in 2006 with 56–44% of the vote, defeating Johnson by a margin of about 22,000 votes. He was re-elected again in 2008 and 2010, with 60 and 54% of the vote, respectively.

Tenure
Murphy has received high scores from liberal groups such as Americans for Democratic Action, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and various labor unions; and low scores from conservative groups as the Club for Growth, American Conservative Union, and FreedomWorks.

In May 2007, Murphy organized a group of freshmen House members to support the creation of an independent, non-partisan ethics panel to review complaints filed against members of the U.S. House of Representatives. He has been credited with helping to shape the independent Office of Congressional Ethics, which was passed into law by the House in March 2008.
 * Ethics reform

Murphy sponsored a bill that would subject Supreme Court Justices to the same ethical code that applies to other federal judges, suggested in 2011 the possibility of an investigation to decide whether Justice Clarence Thomas had committed ethical violations that would justify removing him from office. The matter in question was Thomas's connection to Harlan Crow and other supporters of the Republican Party. Murphy circulated a draft letter to other members of Congress asking the House Judiciary Committee leadership to hold a hearing on the Supreme Court Transparency and Disclosure Act, which would end the Supreme Court's immunity to judicial ethics laws.

As a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Murphy was highly critical of for-profit government contractors operating in Iraq, which functioned with little government oversight and scrutiny. He introduced and successfully passed into law the "Government Funding Transparency Act of 2008" which required private companies that do the majority of their businesses with the federal government to publicly disclose their top executives' salaries.
 * Contractors operating overseas

Two home invasions occurred in Murphy's district in 2007 and 2008; the latter in Cheshire being especially brutal, with the rape and murder of a mother and her two young daughters. In response, Murphy proposed making home invasion a federal crime.
 * Local issues

Murphy has been a proponent of the proposed New Haven-Hartford-Springfield Commuter Rail Line, an effort to use existing railroad tracks owned by Amtrak to provide daily commuter service on par with Southwestern Connecticut's Metro-North service into New York. In 2008, Murphy successfully added an amendment to rail legislation making it easier for Amtrak and the state of Connecticut to cooperate on the rail project.

Murphy proposed reforms of the nation's 'missing-persons' databases, introducing "Billy's Law" in 2009 to improve coordination of law-enforcement efforts to locate missing persons. The legislation was named in honor of Billy Smolinski, Jr., a one-time resident of Murphy's district who disappeared in 2004.

Committee assignments

 * Committee on Foreign Affairs
 * Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia
 * Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
 * Subcommittee on Health Care, District of Columbia, Census and the National Archives
 * Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and Procurement Reform

2012 Senate election
Murphy announced on January 20, 2011, that he would run for the Senate seat held by Joe Lieberman, who is retiring. It was announced in mid-July that a group spearheaded by a state Capitol lobbyist was forming a Super PAC for his campaign, hoping to raise $1 million dollars to combat a possible opponent.

Murphy defeated former Connecticut Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz in the Democratic primary and defeated 2010 Republican candidate Linda McMahon in the general election. After McMahon's negative ads left Murphy "on the defensive virtually nonstop" and struggling to respond, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee sent additional staff and money to Murphy to help with his campaign, saying they are "100 percent behind [him]."

On November 6, Murphy defeated McMahon with 55% of the vote and winning every county except for Litchfield.

Terrorism
Murphy has called for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, however in February 2011, Murphy voted to extend provisions of the Patriot Act.

Filibuster
Murphy has pledged to support fillibuster reform in the Senate, which would change a passing requirement of 60 votes to a simple majority.

Supportive housing
Murphy supports reform of federal supportive housing programs, which assist low-income people with severe disabilities. In 2008, the House of Representatives passed the "Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act", which Murphy authored to modernize and streamline Section 811, which governs federal supportive housing grants.

Energy
In August 2008, Murphy sent a letter to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer expressing support for increased oil drilling as part of a bipartisan energy bill.

Healthcare
In 2009, Murphy helped draft HR 3200, the House health-care reform bill. Murphy defended his role in supporting the bill at a contentious town hall meeting in Simsbury in August 2009.

A longtime supporter of health insurance reform, Murphy is a strong proponent of the public option, which entails the creation of an independent, government-sponsored health insurance plan to compete with private companies. Murphy has argued that such a plan would not require government financing and would help to introduce competition into monopolized health insurance markets and help bring down costs.

When singer Justin Bieber said in an interview with Rolling Stone that he admired the health care system in his native Canada, Murphy sent a tweet to The Huffington Post expressing approval of Bieber's comments. Shortly thereafter Murphy noticed that Bieber, in the same interview, spoke out against the practice of abortion, so Murphy sent out another tweet to distance himself from Bieber on that issue.

LGBT rights
During his tenure in the State Senate, Murphy was one of the first ten co-sponsors of a civil union bill that passed the General Assembly in 2005. On his Senate campaign website, Murphy summarized his stance, "Let me be clear and simple: LGBT rights are human rights. Marriage equality and nondiscrimination in the military, workplace, classroom and healthcare system, based on real or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity, are civil rights that must be protected under law."

Personal life
Chris Murphy and his wife Catherine (née Holahan), have two children.

Financial problems
Murphy has been sued for nonpayment of his mortgage and non-payment of rent, and has also failed to pay taxes when due on several occasions. In 2007, Chase Home Finance sued for foreclosure against Murphy, whose campaign initially responded by claiming that Murphy had missed "a couple of mortgage payments." Murphy claimed that he did not know he was in default until legal proceedings started. Murphy received a loan at the rate of 4.99% from Webster Bank in 2008 to consolidate his previous mortgages after being sued for foreclosure. At the time of this loan, Murphy was serving on the House Financial Services Committee. In 2008, Webster Bank's political action committee made numerous donations to Murphy's campaign and in 2005 and 2006, Murphy worked for Webster as an attorney. In 2008, Murphy voted for the Troubled Asset Relief Program which Webster received $400 million in 2009. Murphy's 2012 Republican opponent Linda McMahon accused him of receiving what she called "special interest loans," and called on Murphy to release his financial records. Bank officials and outside experts claim there was nothing improper about the loans made to Murphy.

During a Senate campaign debate in 2012, he apologized for his past financial problems, saying “I'm not perfect. I made these mistakes and I fixed them. The point is, everyone who has looked into these allegations [of getting a special deal on a line of credit] has found they are completely false."

Electoral history
Note: In all elections to the House, Murphy also ran on the line of the Connecticut Working Families Party, on a fusion ticket.

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