Santorum's media consultant helps Murphy reinvent record

This week, Tim Murphy launched a television advertising campaign created by Brabender Cox, the media consulting firm which produced controversial ads for former Senator Rick Santorum.

Murphy’s first ad portrays him as a leader in efforts to solve the energy crisis, proclaiming his support for investment in alternative energy, prosecution of companies caught price fixing, and increased offshore drilling.  But Murphy has opposed measures to promote alternate energy and to prevent price gouging.

“The question is, can Tim Murphy buy a new image?” asked Steve O’Donnell, who is running for Murphy’s seat in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District.

In 2006, Brabender Cox produced an ad which used actors to portray a fictitious meeting of Bob Casey supporters.  The ad was a subject of criticism in the press.  A second ad mixes images of Casey, terrorists, and a mushroom cloud.

Brabender Cox has produced ads or consulted for a range of Republican clients, including former Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham, who has pleaded guilty to federal charges mail fraud and tax evasion, and former Congressman Bob Ney, who pled guilty to charges of conspiracy in connection with the Jack Abramoff scandal.

In coming weeks, Tim Murphy will spend close to a million dollars on television ads intended to burnish his image and to distance him from the policies of the Bush administration, with which he has voted 80% of the time.

“If the media consultants can sell Murphy as a moderate they deserve all the money in the world,” said O’Donnell.