Fund raising earns Murray plum Democratic role

By Alex Fryer
Seattle Times Washington bureau

Sen. Patty Murray raised $143 million for DSCC.

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

And she got there by doing something that seems at odds with her "mom-in-tennis-shoes" image: raising hundreds of millions of dollars from wealthy donors across the country.

From 2000 to 2002, as head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), Murray ran a machine that brought in a record $143 million for the party's candidates across the country.

As a reward, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle asked Murray to join his four-member executive leadership committee.

Neither the DSCC nor her seat on Daschle's team is mentioned on Murray's campaign Web site. And she still cultivates the voice-of-the-people image that dates from her days on the Shoreline School Board in 1985.

Murray insists that hobnobbing with millionaires and playing an increasingly insider role in the Senate haven't changed her.

"People around here know me, they know who I am and what I fight for, so I have never, ever had someone say, 'I'm writing you a check so I can talk to you,' " she said.

Helping female candidates

Despite all the money they raised, Democrats running for Senate fared poorly in 2002, and Republicans regained control of the chamber. Murray didn't get the boost in clout that she would have if more candidates supported by the DSCC had gotten elected.

But Murray has benefited from her role raising money in previous years for some of the Senate's female stars.

In 1998, as DSCC vice-chair, Murray organized a fund-raising drive called "Women on the Road to the Senate," which helped Hillary Clinton in New York, Maria Cantwell in Washington state, and Deborah Stabenow's effort to unseat a Republican incumbent in Michigan. All three won.
 
Murray twice traveled to Michigan to stump for Stabenow, who won by a single percentage point.

"Her willingness to come to Michigan to talk about jobs and education helped me emphasize those issues," said Stabenow. "I will always be grateful to her for that."

After the 2000 election, Murray became the first woman to head the DSCC and the first senator who had actually asked for the job, said Daschle, who had to recruit her predecessors.

Contrast with Dunn

As DSCC chair, Murray gathered $100,000 personal checks, appeared on Sunday morning talk shows, and canvassed the nation to drum up support for Democratic candidates.

But Murray's approach contrasted with another Puget Sound lawmaker known for her ability to raise campaign cash, Rep. Jennifer Dunn, R-Bellevue.

Dunn has said she enjoys fund raising, even holding events in spas, offering pedicures and facials to donors.

It would be a mistake to say Murray enjoyed the job, said Tovah Ravitz-Meehan, who worked for the DSCC and is now Murray's deputy chief of staff.

"She's very businesslike. She did what she needed to do," said Ravitz-Meehan.

Murray's DSCC staff said she would come to the DSCC offices on Capitol Hill and dutifully go through a prepared to-do list.

She called contributors and campaign managers to make sure their races were on track, and she made the first cut of candidates, deciding which races looked competitive — and worth receiving DSCC money — and which were likely losers.

She also rallied incumbent senators to tap into their own fund-raising network for the DSCC. It wasn't easy, since most senators don't like shaking the trees for somebody else.

So Murray said she relied on motivational techniques learned in a classroom decades earlier.

"I used to teach preschool. There is: 'You will go clean your room,' and there is: 'Let's go clean your room,' " she said.

"I prefer the 'Let's go clean your room' style. My style is to be positive and upbeat."

"Part of the conversation"

The biggest chunk of money to the DSCC came from securities and investment firms, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group.

The chief executive of Los Angeles-based Saban Capital Group gave the most, around $1.4 million, including two checks of $500,000 each.

Many donors gave to both Democrats and Republicans, covering their bets in a closely divided Congress.

"We like to be part of the conversation," said Peter Roberson, director of policy analysis for the Bond Market Association, which represents securities firms. "Democrats listen to us, and so do Republicans. That's basically the purpose."

The association gave $102,500 to the DSCC and $75,800 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee for 2002 campaigns, records show.

The money rolled in during a time when Congress focused on corporate scandals such as Enron and enacted tough corporate reform measures.

Murray said none of the people who gave money asked for favors.

"I have really wondered why someone would invest a lot of money into something like this," she said. "And I have been favorably impressed by the number of people who have done it out of a sense of wanting a democracy to work."

No more bake sales?

Republicans don't see it that way.

Her leadership at the DSCC "shows that Patty Murray has gotten sucked into the Washington, D.C., atmosphere," said Heidi Frederickson, spokeswoman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the GOP counterpart of the DSCC.

"When she ran in 1992, she had bake sales. Because of her ties while she chaired the DSCC, she doesn't need to hold bake sales. She can call the trial lawyers," she said. "There's been a huge change for Patty Murray in the last 12 years."

Murray's campaign certainly benefited from her exposure to the high rollers of the political world.

In her last re-election in 1998, more than 56 percent of Murray's donors lived in Washington state, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. For her current campaign, more than half her money has come from outside the state.

A Seattle Times analysis shows Murray received at least $1.7 million from individuals, PACs, unions and corporations that also contributed to the DSCC under her watch. Her campaign has raised $10 million to date.

But at least one longtime congressional watcher doesn't see much of a contradiction between the image of a "mom in tennis shoes" and that of the party's chief fund-raiser.

"We see a hundred greater contradictions here every day," said Charlie Cook, editor of The Cook Political Report, a D.C.-based newsletter.

"Did she do a superb job at the DSCC? Absolutely," said Cook. "Was it due entirely to her chairmanship? No. We saw a massive escalation in fund raising across the board. It's like an arms race."

The current chair of the DSCC, Sen. Jon Corzine D-N.J., is a multimillionaire who once served as chairman of Goldman Sachs.

"Hard to say no"

Despite the DSCC's successful fund raising, 2002 was the year Republicans took back the Senate by knocking off Democrat incumbents in Georgia and Missouri and reclaiming the Minnesota seat of Paul Wellstone, who died in a plane crash weeks before the election.

Only one Democratic challenger beat an incumbent Republican. Nineteen others lost, including seven women.

The GOP regained control of the Senate by a ratio of 51-49, and Murray was left with a lot of political debts unpaid.

"As a candidate, I just fell in love with her," said Ron Kirk, former Dallas mayor who lost a bid for a U.S. Senate seat in Texas. "Had I won, it would have been hard to say no to her."

After the 2002 election, Daschle rewarded Murray with a seat on his leadership committee, which meets every Tuesday behind closed doors with Daschle and 12 other party leaders to plot strategy.

A seat at the table has given Murray the opportunity to weigh in on national issues from budget priorities to the threat Airbus poses to the U.S. aerospace industry.

When the Senate debated the budget resolution in March, Murray told Daschle she wanted to introduce an amendment that would fund the No Child Left Behind education program by rolling back some tax cuts.

Her amendment failed by 50-48, but she said she made a point about the administration's tax and education priorities.

"As we talk about national policy, she makes the case on Airbus and other things in a larger context," Daschle said. "You know part of her motivation is her local constituency, but she never makes it such an overt reference that you say, 'Well, that's just Patty trying to represent Seattle.' "

"It's not who I am"

Murray's job at the DSCC and her membership on Daschle's leadership team weren't intentionally left off Murray's biography posted on her Web site, said campaign spokeswoman Alex Glass.

The campaign simply decided to emphasize other parts of her career, she said. "It's not a huge part of who she is to the state," said Glass.

Murray said while her role has changed, she still doesn't want to be considered an insider.

"I can see where the perception would be, but it's not who I am," she said. "There are a lot of ears here for the people who can spend a lot of money. I feel I am here uniquely for people who don't have that kind of voice."

Alex Fryer: 206-464-8124 or afryer@seattletimes.com

Times staff reporter Justin Mayo contributed to this report