The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

February 28, 2009

A challenge from the right: Murphy sets sights on Specter's Senate seat

By Matt Snyder

HERMITAGE — A Hermitage man is setting his sights on the seat of U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter in the 2010 Republican primary.

Larry G. Murphy, 45, formerly of Philadelphia, announced his candidacy last week. It will be Murphy’s second attempt to unseat the longtime Pennsylvania senator. His last was in 1998.

While Murphy said Specter is practically unbeatable in the November elections, it’s the primary where he’s weak. “That’s where you have to take Arlen out, because he’s off message with mainstream Republicans.”

Murphy cited Specter’s vote for the stimulus package. He was among three Republicans to vote in favor of the $787 billion initiative that many conservatives criticized as a spending bill.

Specter has defended his stimulus vote, saying he did so reluctantly but in hopes of preventing even worse economic damage down the road.

Murphy said he’s more in tune with the core Republican messages like fiscal responsibility and opposition to abortion and public subsidies.

He lays blame for the economic situation with speculators and bad business practices on one hand, and the Federal Reserve and congressional fiscal policy on the other.

Critical of bailouts, Murphy said businesses need to succeed or fail on their own merits. “They have to make it on their own. It has to be the law of Darwinism in the business community.”

“We can no longer prop up failing businesses and keep them afloat.”

He also said he is to Specter’s right on abortion. “We truly have to look at the pro-life issue. Arlen tends not to do that. We can no longer support mothers killing their children. This is not an issue of choice, as they call it.”

He favors welfare reforms that end the drop-off of public subsidies when low-income people marry.

“I think it takes two parents to raise a child,” Murphy said. He said the government often influences a rise in single-parent families by cutting off subsidies to those who marry.

He said some families may even be in the position of having to break up to survive. “I’m not about removing public subsidies from people who really need them. I am about modifying those to encourage the family unit.” As a family unit, he said people will move forward financially much faster.

Murphy also supports education reform, such as a national teacher certification to improve the mobility of teachers from state to state. He would also regulate the number of substitute teachers a school system can hire over full-time teachers.

“Children lose out when they have different substitutes everyday,” Murphy said. School districts use the tactic to save money on benefits.

He said he’d also look into programs to encourage parents to be more involved in education.

Murphy acknowledged Specter has a lot of name recognition, but said that is what he’s counting on. “They know what he’s done,” Murphy said.

“We respect his service, but he’s out of touch with our message. And he’s been there for some time. So now it’s time to thank him for his service and watch him move on,” Murphy said.

Murphy lives in Hermitage now but was born and raised in the Philadelphia and Pottsville areas. Many of his political contacts are still in those areas, but he said he’s building a network of friends and supporters in Western Pennsylvania.

Retired from the United States Air Force, Murphy owns a communications business. His last job with the military was reviewing the files of prisoners kept in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, he said.

He said the plan right now is to raise enough money that potential backers know he’s a serious candidate.

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