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Murphy SOS Draws 250 To Eli Whitney

by marcia chambers | Sep 10, 2012 8:15 am

(7) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author

Posted to: Presidential Campaign

A “brigade” of liberal city and suburban door-knockers descended on New Haven as an SOS bulletin for the future of the U.S. Senate arrived home from Charlotte.

The SOS was originally sounded in Charlotte at last week’s Democratic National Convention: That Democrats in blue-state Connecticut, which currently has no Republican representatives in Washington, appear in danger of losing the state’s open U.S. Senate seat—and, perhaps in the process, control of the Senate itself.

That sense of urgency drew 250 campaign volunteers from a group called the Hilltop Brigade to the Eli Whitney Museum Sunday for a rally and strategy session for the campaign of Chris Murphy. Democrat Murphy is running against Republican Linda McMahon for the seat being vacated this year by U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman.

McMahon, a former world-wrestling exec, spent $50 million the last time she ran for the Senate (and lost). She appears on a similar spending track this time and has, to the surprise of many observers, pulled even to or even ahead of Murphy, a Congressman from the state’s Fifth District.

The sense of urgency was heightened by the fact that control of the Senate itself is up for grabs. The Connecticut race has emerged as one of a small set of contests nationwide that will determine the balance.

The state party’s big guns arrived in New Haven to fire up the Brigade.

“We are fighting for the soul of this nation. Not the soul of the Democratic Party; the soul of the nation,” New Haven U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro told those assembled. “And we will not take back the United States unless Chris Murphy is elected right now.”

“Make no mistake: Connecticut is now truly a battleground state,” declared U.S. Sen Dick Blumenthal, who defeated McMahon in 2010’s election. “We are going to have to work hard and as long as possible to elect Chris Murphy.”

The Hilltop Brigade was born in 2005 after DeLauro met with a group of Democratic activists in Stephanie Farber’s Branford living room to seek ways to alter Republican control of Washington. (Hilltop refers to “Take Back the Hill,” as in Capitol Hill.) The idea worked. Ultimately, through house parties and other events, the Hilltop Brigade, co-founded by Farber and Penny Bellamy, recruited more than 700 volunteers who knocked on doors in the key districts, usually in suburbs. Two of their three 2006 candidates won: Murphy and Joe Courtney.
Click here for their website.

Sunday the group gathered to support Murphy in his Senate quest—and determined that they’ll be needed in New Haven, not just the suburbs.

Courtesy Robert Rattner “Here we are again at the center of a fight for the United States Senate. I have lived with the Tea Party for the last two years in the House,” Murphy told the faithful at the lunch event, singling out women’s issues, among others. “Even if President Obama gets elected, if we don’t hold onto the U.S. Senate, then they get everything they want.”

One of McMahon’s trackers was also at Eli Whitney, video camera in tow and helping himself to lunch, which included chicken gumbo soup, tea sandwiches, fruit and chocolates.

When someone spotted him and informed officials, he was told this was an invitation-only gathering. He returned his plate of food and left, but not before he managed to videotape some portions of the event.

The Hilltop volunteers usually avoid safe districts, like DeLauro’s in New Haven or U.S. Rep’s John Larson’s in East Hartford; instead they are deployed to districts in need. Farber told the group that this year they would go to three districts, but then she said New Haven had been added to the list this year because Murphy needs help. New Haven, with its largest statewide concentration of Democrats, has emerged as critical to any statewide Democratic candidate’s campaign; Murphy practically moved into town for his primary this year. (Click here and here to read about that.)

But as he noted Sunday, “there are still a lot of people who don’t know much about me. There are still a lot of people who maybe know my name but don’t know enough about me to register an opinion. There are Democratic leaning voters who want to know something about an alternative to Linda McMahon. That is where this volunteer effort comes in.”

Murphy and others said the McMahon campaign has hired teams of paid interns to go door-to door in districts throughout out the state but said paid workers are different from volunteers.

Todd Abrajana, McMahon’s spokesman, said in an interview that the McMahon campaign has a “robust” group of volunteers who go door to door and make telephone calls as well. “We have a strong army of volunteers in the state,” Abrajana said. “We have ten offices open right now.”

The campaign is about to open three more, including one in Branford.

“We expect to do about one million calls to voter,s and we are going to try to knock on half-million doors, too,” he said. “We are going to voters across the board, reaching out to Independents and Democrats we believe will consider voting for Linda.”  Often discussions center on McMahon’s “jobs plan.”   

Blumenthal Sunday sounded what’s becoming a familiar Murphy rallying cry: The Democrats can’t match the tens of millions McMahon will pour into the race, blanketing the airwaves; he’ll need extra people power on the streets. McMahon has blanketed airwaves and the Internet with ads for weeks now, seeking to define Murphy before Murphy can define himself to the electorate.

“I personally know the pounding he is taking every single day,” Blumenthal said, alluding to his own race two years ago against McMahon, who put $50 million of her own money to try to defeat him. “Fifty million dollars. Think of the resources he will need. We don’t need $50 million; we just need enough to fight back to win because. Believe me, this is about history.”

Blumenthal said face-to-face contact with voters, personal contact, “is irreplaceable.” Murphy, he told the standing room only audience, will fight for “women’s health care, civil rights, civil liberties” and a host of other “causes that we in this room regard as absolutely essential.”

“It is a gorgeous day in September, and you are all here to help us save the country,” DeLauro said.  To Farber and Bellamy, she said: “You have created a political grassroots group that has changed the face of Connecticut politics. We are asking you to do it again.”

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posted by: anonymous on September 10, 2012  10:20am

They’ll need luck! If you turn on your radio, and scan the stations, you’re guaranteed to come across a Linda advertisement within about 20 seconds.

posted by: Charl on September 10, 2012  10:25am

This is the worst type of political speech.  Realize this:  Rosa DeLauro just said that the sould of America will be lost…unless Chris Murphy is elected *right now.*

The United States does not have a soul.  Neither does a corporation have a soul.  Human beings do not even have souls…. You do not have a soul. You are a soul.  You have a body.  (Quote by C.S. Lewis.)

If the country is personified, and imagined to have a soul, then who controls the soul of America?  No one does, because it does not exist.  This is a way for people who do not want to take responsibility for their *own* soul to focus on something other than themselves.

It is much easier to dish out platitudes and bewail the state of ‘the soul of our country’ than it is to examine one’s own soul, will, and life.  It is the most difficult, yet most noble thing in all of life: to honestly assess your personal convictions, thoughts, and actions and to correct the errors in speech and deed. 

Final note:  If you take the metaphorical view of ‘America having a soul’ then certainly the election of Chris Murphy is not what is required for it to be saved….Instead how about: the return to rule of law, the immediate cessation of war and killing, the humble return to God and morality,etc.

posted by: PH on September 10, 2012  10:52am

If you want Charl injecting God and whatever his version of morality is into your life via the government, then vote for McMahon.  If you believe that state and church should be completely separated, that one should be able to choose one’s own religion and not be forced to abide by the rectal certitude of another’s religion, then vote for Chris Murphy.

I’ve examined myself, and I don’t want the Tea Party anywhere near my life or my government.

posted by: ANTI-BIAS on September 10, 2012  12:19pm

As an Independent voter the party affiliation is not my concern. It’s the “Candidate’s “Truthfulness, Ethic’s, and do they stand for the Party or the People that He or She represent. And yes how they stand on issues is important to me. So is what Linda is saying about Chris Murphy True? If so then he Fails the test. So is what Chris is saying about Linda McMahon True? If so then she Fails the test. If you’ll lie to the voters to get elected what else will they do to help themselves!  Unfortunately it’s sometime the lesser of two evils when it comes to Politician’s. I look for facts not unfounded accusations. So far little of what Chris Murphy has said against Linda rings true as Fact. That SHE would vote on issues that could hurt WOMAN is nothing but the Democrat Party’s BS.That Chris is playing that game is where Chris shows me He is a follower of THE PARTY not a Representative of the People. That means he stand for the Ethics of a Pelosi who want you “to vote for a Bill without reading it” that just shows how Stupid some Politician’s think we are. If this is the Transparency Obama promised I don’t get it? Has anyone realized what Obama’s slogan “ Forward” came from and where it’s taking us?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_z_pHUKajc

posted by: SaveOurCity on September 10, 2012  1:29pm

Sounds like we have a party that is desperate to keep control….the question to ask ourselves is, “Is the Democrat party seeking to win in order to help the electorate or are they seeking to win order to keep ‘control’?” 

The convention statement that “Government is the only thing we all belong to” scares the &*%$* out of me.  I prefer view myself and my family as being independent (that’s how I am registered).  Belonging to government sounds like we are one step from bowing to what Big Brother tells us we must do for the betterment of society.

We, as a society, have some big decisions to make this November….I hope that we choose a direction that starts to fix our governing system and turn us away from the path that Greece has taken.

posted by: Charl on September 10, 2012  2:17pm

Interesting response PH.  Your logic and reasoning are severely flawed.  You attacked me, not my message.

Nowhere did I state that individuals should be subjected to any opinion on God and morality, other than their own.

Your response shows your views have been scripted by the Left vs Right, Conservative vs Liberal, Dem vs Repub duality for way too long.

I am not supporting Linda McMahon, nor Chris Murphy.  I support true freedom and true liberty, and personal responsibility and accountability. 

You are free to believe however and whatever you like, as long as you infringe on the rights and freedoms of anyone else.

The government does not give you nor I any rights or freedoms.  I claim them for myself, given by God at birth.  The Constitution does not enumerate my rights.  The Constitution merely states which rights the U.S. Government was created to protect. 

However, the police state, 1984 style nightmare is already here.  It is not coming, it arrived almost 11 years ago to the day….and has been planned since before JFK was murdered, even before 1913 with the creation of both the Federal Reserve (Unconstituation, immoral slavery system) and the Federal Income Tax (again immoral-  a tax on my own personal labor, the work I personally do and accomplish??!!)

Please, PH wake up from the Matrix.  You have been scripted to see me as your enemy.  Nearly all Americans (myself included, for most of my life) have been scripted to see fellow Americans as the ‘enemy’....but never the U.S. Government as the greatest enemy.  Our own government is the single greatest threat to you and me: with regards to violence, theft, loss of freedoms, etc.

posted by: Christopher Schaefer on September 11, 2012  7:28am

ANTI BIAS says: “As an Independent voter the party affiliation is not my concern. It’s the Candidate’s Truthfulness, Ethics”. Thus how ironic that Rosa DeLauro should interject comments about “fighting for the soul of this nation” when her own truthfulness and ethics are highly questionable: http://easthaven.patch.com/blog_posts/the-delauro-factor-e5065dcd

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