Murphy panics, launches TV blitz

Pittsburgh, PA - Congressman Tim Murphy yesterday began a cable television advertising blitz yesterday in response to recent information which threatens his re-election campaign.

Murphy's ad campaign was not slated to begin until the week of October 13th.  However, his campaign conducted an internal poll last week which drove him to accelerate his ad campaign.

Polling by the O'Donnell campaign finds that only 34% of District 18 voters approve of his performance.  Only 19% of voters report that they definitely plan to vote for him.  These are abysmal numbers for an incumbent, and they indicate that Murphy may be in serious trouble.  The poll was conducted in July, before unemployment spiked and stock prices began to plummet.

"Tim knows that he's in for a real fight," said O'Donnell.  "He can run as many commercials as he wants, but he won't be able to paper over his support for the Bush administration's disastrous policies."

Murphy's television buy also follows a week in which he was hammered by constituents calling for him to vote against the bailout plan then hammered again by constituents angry about his vote.

The ad blitz also follows a recent report by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington which named Murphy as one of "the 20 most corrupt members of Congress."  The list includes such notably corrupt members of Congress as Alaska's Ted Stevens and Louisiana's William Jefferson.

###