Joseph Cao served in Congress from January 3, 2009 to January 3, 2011. He represented Louisiana’s 2nd congressional district, which contains nearly of the city of New Orleans. The Big Easy is a very Democratic town, but Rep. Cao is a Republican. If you’re wondering how he managed to win an election there in 2008, you need to look at his opponent. William “Bill” Jefferson had been indicted on June 4, 2007, charged with “sixteen felony charges related to corruption.” He was convicted in 2009 and sentenced to thirteen years in prison.
Jefferson’s case was made famous by the $90,000 in what prosecutors said was bribe money that the FBI found stuffed into his freezer and a legal battle over the raid of his Washington office, a battle that reached the highest levels of the U.S. government. He was convicted in August in U.S. District Court in Alexandria of 11 counts that included bribery, racketeering and money laundering. Jurors acquitted Jefferson of five counts.
Yes, the man had $90,000 in cash crammed in his freezer. Nonetheless, he decided to run for reelection in 2008, and he almost won. Mr. Cao received 50% of the vote (33,132) and Jefferson got 47% (31,318).
As a congressman, Cao got fairly high marks for doing a passable job of representing a heavily Democratic city while being a member of a hostile party. Nonetheless, he was crushed by Democrat Cedric Richmond 65%-33% in 2010, in what was otherwise a horrible election night for Democrats. I doubt there was anything he could have conceivably done in office to hold the seat.
I bring this up because Republican Rep. Tim Murphy of the 18th congressional district of Pennsylvania has just seen his political career implode in a spectacular manner that is reminiscent of the way Bill “Freezer Cash” Jefferson went down. So far, Murphy isn’t accused of any crimes, although I don’t think it should be legal to watch YouTubes on your iPad while you’re driving staff members at a high speed through a torrential downpour.
That incident is just one of many examples of Murphy’s deplorable behavior that were detailed in a memo by his longtime chief of staff Susan Mosychuk.
The June 8 memo, titled “Office Conduct and Behavior: Harassment/Legal Compliance,” says that there had been an “ongoing and ever more pronounced pattern of sustained inappropriate behavior” from the congressman.
The memo criticized his “inability to hire and retain competent staff, abysmal office morale,” as well as “hostile, erratic, unstable, angry, aggressive and abusive behavior.”
According to the memo, the office has had nearly 100 percent staff turnover in one year and that the office has lost more than 100 staffers since Ms. Mosychuk started working with Mr. Murphy. Ms. Mosychuk began working with him in 2003.
The memo says that its purpose was to detail the problems as they related to the office manual as well as the Congressional Accountability Act and seek corrective action.
The memo recounted events from June 2 and June 5 involving a visit Mr. Murphy made to his home district.
“You were storming around as we walked in, and as we sat down for prep — having just arrived literally moments ago — you started in on the [legislative director] and verbally abused him, harassed him, chastised him and criticized all his work products. You called many of the work products that he literally gave up his weekend to produce as ‘useless.’ You pushed other documents off the table onto the floor because they weren’t what you wanted. Then you got angry and demanded we find the documents that you had just thrown on the ground.”
The behavior detailed in this memo is worse than the characterization of it above makes it sound. In a normal congressional district, the revelations it contains would be fatal. But Tim Murphy’s seat is so safe that no Democrat has filed to run against him in the last two election cycles. I featured Murphy’s home turf in my feature article in our June/July/August issue about How to Win Rural Voters Without Losing Liberal Values. Two of the major counties in the 18th congressional district (Greene and Washington) collectively made up seventy-one percent of Trump’s margin of victory in the Keystone State. The reason that I focused on those two counties is because they had swung so decisively against the Democrats that they stood out. In 2008, Obama and McCain split Greene County. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won only twenty-nine percent of the vote there. In Washington County, Obama lost by 4,571 votes in 2008 and by 12,885 in 2012. In 2016, Clinton lost by 25,064, which was more than half of the statewide margin. Murphy’s district is ninety-six percent white and two percent black, which explains why Trump’s racial polarization effort was so effective there. And the Democrats’ collapse in districts like Murphy’s also explains why they’re not going to make too much of an issue about new gun control regulations in the aftermath of the Las Vegas massacre.
In these circumstances, Murphy could probably run and win again without too much worry. The Democrats are an absolutely toxic brand among his constituents. But things are quite a bit worse for Murphy than I have so far described.
A text message sent in January to U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy by a woman with whom he had an extra-marital relationship took him to task for an anti-abortion statement posted on Facebook from his office’s public account.
“And you have zero issue posting your pro-life stance all over the place when you had no issue asking me to abort our unborn child just last week when we thought that was one of the options,” Shannon Edwards, a forensic psychologist in Pittsburgh with whom the congressman admitted last month to having a relationship, wrote to Mr. Murphy on Jan. 25, in the midst of an unfounded pregnancy scare.
A text from Mr. Murphy’s cell phone number that same day in response says, “I get what you say about my March for life messages. I’ve never written them. Staff does them. I read them and winced. I told staff don’t write any more. I will.”
The congressman has been lauded by the Family Research Council, for his stance on abortion, as well as for family values, generally. He also has been endorsed by LifePAC, which opposes abortion rights, and is a member of the House Pro-Life Caucus, an affiliation that is often cited by his office.
There’s even a second extramarital affair disclosed in the leaked documents that dates back about a decade. But it’s Murphy’s hypocrisy in being a stanch anti-choice politician who asked his mistress to get an abortion that is getting most of the headlines. When that is taken in combination with the even more troubling information about his erratic and abusive behavior toward his staff and on the roadways, Murphy is definitely getting into Freezer Cash territory.
If he actually decides to run for reelection, a Democratic challenger should have a shot at beating him. Most likely, even a victorious challenger would vote with the Republicans a lot of the time in a probably vain effort to retain the seat. It wouldn’t necessarily add a lot of political value unless it became the deciding seat to determine control of the House of Representatives.
But, unlike New Orleans, the areas contained in the 18th Congressional District were competitive not too long ago. It’s actually vitally important that future Democrats do considerably better in the district than Clinton did, because as I’ve already mentioned, it made up more than half of Trump’s statewide margin of victory. For me, this is practically ground zero for the 9/11-style devastation of the 2016 presidential election.
The Democrats have plenty of reasons to want to take advantage of Murphy’s implosion here.
My prediction: it won’t matter to his voters. Their white resentment will reign supreme. As long as he votes their way it doesn’t matter what he does in his personal life. After all, they voted for Trump. How much different is that?
The Dems should still contest Every. Single. Election.
One of the lessons from the Cao-Jefferson election is that Jefferson still almost won because the citizens of New Orleans, a lot of them anyway, would rather vote for a crooked Democrat than any Republican.
Jefferson just took it a little too far. Maybe Murphy has, too.
He will run for reelection, and he will win. You explain why right here,
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Murphy’s district is ninety-six percent white and two percent black, which explains why Trump’s racial polarization effort was so effective there.
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Murphy hates the same people they hate, they don’t care about anything else.
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And my point is that you could have reasonably said the same thing about Jefferson, but you would have been wrong.
Yes, but there is a key difference here….
Democrats, as a whole, are not haters and understand country over party, so they can be swayed by corruption. Republicans, as a whole, don’t give a fuck about anything but hating the other, and can ignore anything rather than vote for the other.
As proof of theory I give exhibit A,
His district voted for Trump in overwhelming numbers.
The district examples are no where near the same.
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In 2008, Jefferson still got 2/3rd of the Democrats to vote for him. So rather than waxing patriotic about how Democrats put country, we/re about 1/3rd pure when it comes to bribery. We’re probably 1/4 pure when it comes to our disgust with sexting scandals which is still more pure than the GOP would be. A little more prudish than the GOP, despite our reputation as being incorrigible sex freaks. But nothing really all that praiseworthy.
You don’t understand Republicans very well. You do know why evangelicals “forgive” all those GOPers who cheat on their wives, or pay for abortions for their wives/girlfriends/mistresses right?
Isn’t someone like Jefferson — busted for corruption and not resigning and running for re-election — the exception? (If Jefferson had won in ’08, he would have been expelled from congress when he was convicted in ’09, just as Traficant was.)
It’s more common for a politician to seek re-election after an extra-marital affair has been exposed. However, many resign instead of seeking another term. I’d say that it’s a fifty/fifty proposition in Murphy’s case. Clears the decks for a GOP replacement and Murphy can collect lobbying fees.
Who knew that marital infidelity can still be an issue in a divorce in some states?
Lesson for men like Murphy, know the state divorce laws of a married sweetie’s residence and don’t scorn a women. Or stick with pros that never talk.
Edwards organized a protest against the ending of Full House, a freaking TV show. (Okay, she was young at the time (22), but still …)
I grew up in southwestern PA right when the area morphed from a place even Reagan wouldn’t go into one of W’s favorite domestic stops.
You are right that Democrats/Liberals/liberalism have become completely toxic brands throughout SW PA in the last 25 years. The attitude extends to the affluent Pittsburgh suburbs and ex-burbs of college educated working professionals so the swing isn’t strictly a working class and/or small town/rural voter issue.
I wonder, long term, if Republican’s may be stuck with Trump and nominating MORE Trumps because the values he campaigned on are what delivered SW PA and much of the Midwest for them. Worse, those white resentment values that attracted Greene/Washington County voters to Trump have existed in this area since their dads and/or granddads were unionized workers making $30 an hour plus OT and quality benefits.
Coupled with the gerrymandering, I don’t know how a Democrat breaks such a hold.
Unless you can shut down Fox News they mostly don’t. That network gives republicans something like 5 extra points in elections.
The entire Conservative Media Infotainment complex would need burned down.
I watched SW PA whites embraced Boss Limbaugh et al. after Clinton got elected and have only dug deeper into Bubble in every day since. Their self segregation has only tripled since the embarrassing failure that was the Bush administration was replaced by a liberal, educated black guy with a funny name.
We aren’t fighting over policy, but perceptions of social-cultural dominance. We’re talking about people who will accept certain levels of survival as long as it means THOSE PEOPLE are always kept worse off and the media keeps treating “Working Class” whites as the great tragic heroes of the American Dream.
This is why I am very skeptical any Democratic policy outreach to the “Economically Anxious Working Class” will yield any significant electoral gains. Worse, I worry that while Democrats may have gained Nevada and turned Virginia/North Carolina into battle grounds in 2016, we lost the eastern Midwest for the next several decades….a significant net loss over all.
I think Tim Murphy is in trouble in the Pennsylvania’s 18th district. I couldn’t find any statistics regarding religion, but it looks like it has a fair share of Catholics and Murphy’s involvement with Ms. Edward’s will cost him. A certain type of Democratic candidate would have a decent chance if Murphy runs again.
So much for all those here that projected Murphy would run and win in ’18.
Had you and I put our heads together, we would have come up with the correct scenario: will serve out his term but not seek reelection.
And whatever Republican runs will win.
The Dems should still contest every election.
True that nothing can’t beat something.
Also true that a GOP something can beat any Dem something in some CDs. The opposite is true as well.
However, contesting every seat is a slogan and not an objective.
Nothing in some CDs may be preferable to a something that is so weak he/she pushes the needle further in the GOP direction. IOW, contest every seat where there is a reasonable a potential for gains this time and that can be built upon in the next few election cycles. A longer-term perspective and for that, it’s best to go with candidates up to a longer term challenge.
He announced that he isn’t going to seek reelection.
CNN Anti-abortion Rep. Tim Murphy, who reportedly urged abortion, will not seek reelection
So, who here got close to calling this one?
It still means he’ll be in office for another year and a half or so (happy to be wrong about that) and the Republicans will be able to find someone else to take his place. Remember, conservatism can’t fail, it can only be failed.
I will say that I would have thought it would have taken longer for him to say he wouldn’t run than it actually did.
Too soon to tell.
Expect the GOP will be monitoring this CD and evaluating the options: resignation/special election v. regular election calendar for this 2018 open seat. As long as Murphy isn’t a drag, they save a lot of money with the second and it gives those seeking to replace Murphy more time to put together a campaign.
So far, including Murphy’s seat, three will be open in ’18. Nine incumbent Republicans haven’t announced their intention and two of them have GOP challengers.
However, not all officeholders in such a situation can tough it out for thirteen months. (Resigning a few days after the ’18 midterms wouldn’t leave the seat open long enough for a special election.)
Tim Murphy Resigns
Surprised again? I couldn’t have told anyone what Murphy would do but I was able to articulate the possibilities and include some range on the odds based on similar prior instances. Running and getting re-elected — the favored position in this thread — had the highest odds against it.
You get all the gold stars.
Envious?
I’ve always liked people that are sharper and more astute than me, and whenever they analyzed something correctly that I flubbed (iow not talking about coin toss predictions), I not only didn’t get pissed at and denigrate them, but recognized it as an opportunity to learn from them.
to, well, everyone!
Just ask you!
The Republican Party Isn’t Cracking Up. It’s Getting Even Stronger
Lesson No. 1: Don’t do shit until you gettem’ to pee on the test kit.
Looks like the polling was worse than worse.
What about that other piece of shit Tennessee’s Scott DesJarlais? Somebody oughto turn up the heat on him. I think he actually forced the abortion, beyond simply requesting it.