SANFORD, Maine - We continue now with our series of Your Vote 2014 candidate profiles. Today, we look at independent Richard Murphy, of Sanford, a military veteran and civil engineer who hopes to unseat Democratic incumbent Chellie Pinrgee next month to represent Maine's 1st Congressional District.
Richard Murphy wants you to be very clear: He is not a politician. The career politicians, he says, have failed - and should make way for a regular guy like him, who understands the needs of ordinary people.
Speaking on MPBN's Maine Calling Thursday, Murphy's disdain for the "Washington elite" was clear. "Our government right now has about a 13 percent approval rating," he said. "They're not governing, they're going on vacation a lot. They take this break, they take that break, they travel here, they fundraise here, they raise money for this - they're not working for us. It's like a big fraternity down there."
Nevertheless, Murphy's world view has more in common with the GOP than the Democrats, and he admits he would most likely caucus with Republicans if he ends up in Congress. He's pro-life, and pro-gun, opposing, for example, universal background checks.
Murphy says the federal government has too much control over people's lives: He wants to minimize the role of Washington in areas such as education and environmental regulation, and give more power to individual states.
On the economy, Murphy would boost job creation by reducing the deficit to zero - something which would be achieved by freezing federal spending at 2013 levels for as long as it takes.
While Murphy says he agrees with some aspects of the Affordable Care Act, he is an entrenched opponent of the program, which he calls the "Unaffordable Care Act." Even though the law has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, Murphy says the ACA runs counter to the principles of the U.S. Constitution.
"There's nothing in there that says the federal government has the authority to tell me, you, anybody, that they're now required to buy a product from a third party, independent business or be fined," he says. "What are they going to do next? Are they going to tell me I have to buy government bonds for the greater good because they need more money, or pay a penalty?"
Richard Murphy is 37 and has lived in Maine for five years. He's originally from Massachusetts. His online resume shows him to be well-traveled: a qualified civil engineer, he's spent time living and working in the Far East, including South Korea and Malaysia. He's also the only Maine congressional candidate with military experience, and has twice deployed to Iraq and Kuwait as a National Guardsman.
On foreign policy, Murphy says America needs to scale back its overseas military commitments and stop trying to be the world's policeman. "We spend over $60 billion a year in overseas military funding, contingency funding. That's a lot of money," he says. "We have bases everywhere that are unnecessary and do not improve the security of our country."
Murphy wants to see those billions returned home, to invest in infrastructure and domestic security projects. "When we're guarding the South Korea border and not guarding our own borders, I see a problem with that," he says.
"He's a working guy, like us," says Tea Party supporter Clint Daggett. Daggett, of Shapleigh, describes Murphy as a "breath of fresh air." He says he's drawn to the candidate by his strong work ethic and his breadth of professional experience, military and civilian, overseas and at home. Army veteran Tim Tiernan of Lebanon says Murphy has every man appeal.
"I just hope that people take a look at him and ask themselves, out of all the people running, the three candidates, which one is most like them," Daggett says, "and I think they'll clearly come up with Richard as an answer."
"In one way he's positioned himself to represent average Mainers and that's a stance that's worked before," says USM Political Science Professor Ron Schmidt. But Schmidt says Murphy's unlikely to make an impact in the 1st District, given Chellie Pingree's commanding lead in the polls. A recent survey by the Portland Press Herald put her at 66 percent, with Republican contender Isaac Misiuk getting 13 percent. Murphy got no support.
If the race between Pingree and Misiuk was tighter, says Schmidt, then Murphy may have an impact, but "there's just not a lot of room on the field right now for the position that Murphy has laid claim to."