John Murphy
A third candidate has announced his intention to challenge U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts for the 16th Congressional District seat. John Murphy of Chester County will make his third run for the seat as an independent. [Note: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated this will be Murphy's second run. In fact, he ran in both 2006 and 2008.]
Murphy joins fellow independent and Manheim Township businessman Jim Bednarski and Democrat Aryanna Strader of Chester County in taking on the eight-term, well financed Republican.
Murphy last ran for the seat in 2008. During his 2006 campaign, he dressed up in a chicken costume and handed out bags of candy corn outside a debate between Pitts and Democrat Lois Herr. Murphy, who had not been invited to the debate, told attendees, “Go feed the chickens.”
Murphy’s press release takes shots at both Pitts and Strader.
“This is the same Joe Pitts who wants to force American working people to put their Social Security money in the Stock Market instead of the Government backed safety net” said John Murphy. “Imagine where seniors would be if that bill had passed”, added the independent candidate! Murphy continued, “This is the same Joe Pitts who took money from Jack Abramoff and who blamed the decline in US fatherhood on Homer Simpson”.
John Murphy will also be running against the pro-war, pro-corporate Democrat Aryanna Strader who says all we have to do to lower unemployment is to give corporate welfare in the form of tax breaks to business. According to independent John Murphy, “It is axiomatic that businesses, whether they are large or small, only hire new employees when demand for their products and services increase. We are in the midst of a major recession; demand is flat as are the wages of those who are still employed. No amount of government money is going to make businesses hire new employees without new customers. Clearly the Democratic candidate understands very little about business or the economy”. Murphy added, “Perhaps this is why the Democratic Party had to outsource its candidate for the 16th Congressional District from the seventh District! It is an embarrassment that the Democratic candidate for House of Representatives in the 16th district, doesn’t even live in the district and has only lived in the state for a few months” continued Murphy.
Murphy further observed that both the Republican and Democratic candidates confessed their ignorance of President Obama’s health care plan last Friday to WHP-TV’s Harrisburg reporter Chris Papst. Pitts incredibly said that the President’s plan was a “government takeover” which is patently ridiculous since the plan amounts to nothing more than a huge gift to big Pharma and does little to help working Americans. The Democratic candidate, Strader, apparently thinks we don’t need any healthcare insurance at all as she said we should all take “care of one another”.
According to Murphy, “Strader’s view is naïve and bespeaks a mentality whereby we should all put a dime in the can at the grocery store to help with the enormous medical bills of our neighbors”. We must have universal single-payer healthcare but both the Democratic and Republican parties have decided to put the interests of corporations before the interests of working Americans. “Pitts actually got something right but for the wrong reason. The bill is indeed unconstitutional and should be stricken down by the Supreme Court” added Murphy.
