Tammy Murphy’s Long Campaign Contributions History
NJ First Lady Tammy Murphy spent 18,248,180 on campaign contributions between 2002-2022.
We fell down spreadsheet rabbit hole so you don’t have to.
Here are some red flags:
Rick Lazio (R) for US Senate
The vast majority of Tammy Murphy’s political campaign contribution largesse occurred in 2016 and 20017, the years her husband ramped up and ran for NJ Governor.
But back on 7-28-2000, Mrs. Murphy contributed $1000 to rightwing Congressman Rick Lazio for his 2000 US Senate race against Hillary Rodham Clinton. Mrs. Murphy gave another $1000 to the GOP committee supporting Lazio.
That’s right, Tammy Murphy supported Mr. Lazio, the same sexist cad who “made himself look like a lunatic” invading Mrs. Clinton’s personal space on the debate stage in 2000.
Lazio fancied himself “pro-choice” but according to National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), “in eight years in Congress, Lazio has voted on abortion and reproductive rights issues 94 times. Some 43 were anti-choice votes.”
Mrs. Clinton won that race, vanquishing Mr. Lazio to the private sector where he made millions as a lobbyist for JP Morgan.
President George W Bush (R)
Between 1999- 2003, Tammy Murphy contributed $3000 to George W. Bush, the man who nominated anti-abortion justices John Roberts and Sam Alito to the US Supreme Court. Mr. Alito is perhaps the most virulently anti-abortion Supreme Court judge in American history.
And don’t even get me started on Alito’s views on LGBT rights.
Mrs. Murphy, who brings up abortion a lot, never mentions the indirect role she played overturning Roe v Wade by supporting Bush.
Remember that the next time Tammy Murphy says something like this out on the campaign trail:
“I don’t think a man is going to put a priority on abortion and codifying that at the federal level,” Mrs. Murphy recently said, without a hint of irony.”That’s going to take a female who is worried about the next shoe dropping and that’s me.”
Based on her campaign contributions, we can reasonably assume that Mrs. Murphy voted for George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004.
“I have given more money to Democrats than I ever have to Republicans,” Mrs Murphy said, “and I have not voted for a Republican in a general election in two decades.”
I spent years fighting and organizing around Bush’s madness: the Iraq War (see pic), raids of Social Security, and especially his US Supreme Court nominations. The notion that Tammy Murphy financially supported and voted once (and probably twice) for the man who gave us Sam Alito is why I will never vote for Tammy Murphy for anything. Ever.
Republican National Committee
Tammy Murphy gave the RNC $15,000 in 2000.
NJ GOP
On 9-17-04, Tammy Murphy gave $20,000 to the NJ Republican Party. That’s roughly $32k in today’s numbers, or more than many NJ residents make in a whole year.
She also gave $5000 to the NJ Republican State Committee that same day.
Murphy’s support for the NJGOP came at a tumultuous time for the NJ Dems. This was shortly before Jim McGreevy resigned and NJ Senate President Dick Codey took the helm as acting Governor for a little over year until Jon Corzine was sworn in on January 17, 2006.
Tom Malinowski for Congress
When former Congressman Tom Malinowski ran for re-election in 2020, Mrs. Murphy gave over $5k. Mrs. Murphy gave Malinowski another $500 in 2022.
More recently, when Malinowski endorsed Congressman Andy Kim for US Senate (instead of Tammy Murphy) the Murphy campaign came out swinging, accusing Mr. Malinowski of dodgy investment tactics.
That’s rich considering the Governor and Mrs. Murphy’s gazillion dollar investment portfolio is in a blind trust managed by *checks notes* Mrs. Murphy’s brother.
Gold Bar Bob Menendez
Tammy Murphy was an ardent supporter of Bob Menendez for an uncomfortably long time, and certainly long after Bob’s legal and ethical missteps were common knowledge.
Murphy gave Menendez $2,700 in March 2017 and did so again the following March of 2018 when Menendez was running for reelection.
Congressman Andy Kim
Tammy Murphy has also contributed to Congressman Andy Kim, the man she’s battling to replace Bob Menendez. She contributed $2700 to Kim’s Congressional campaign in 2018.
Mrs. Murphy gave another $500 in 2022, the last time Andy Kim was on the ballot.
Jim Saxton
In 2000, Mrs. Murphy gave $1000 to Congressman Jim Saxton, an ardent pro-war Republican who represented NJ’s 3rd congressional district for 25 years.
Saxton was my Congressman when I first landed in NJ in back 2003. His extremist views on abortion, LGBT rights, and the Iraq war gave a young activist much to protest and to organize around. You might even say Jim Saxton’s awfulness helped lay the foundation for my career as an advocate.
So that $1000 check from Mrs. Murphy nearly 25 years ago still feel personal.
And Saxton wasn’t the only GOP recipient of Murphy’s largesse in those days. US Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) got $2000 as did Congressman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY).
Congressman Brian Bilbray (R-CA) and Congressman Bob Franks (R-NJ) each got $1000 from Mrs. Murphy as well.
Jay Lassiter is a writer based in Cherry Hill, NJ. He’s never made a campaign contribution over $500.
Excellent summary Jay.
Good article, very interesting. But by comparison, Donald Trump donated lots of money to Democrats over the years including Hillary Clinton when she ran for US Senate in New York, and he even donated to Hillary when she ran for POTUS in 2008. Trump also donated $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation. Actually, given the many donations he made to Democratic politicians, I always thought Trump was a Democrat before he ran for POTUS.
So…are you comparing Tammy Murphy to Donald Trump? The point is that Tammy is running a campaign based on her support for key Democratic issues, in particular: reproductive rights. It rings hollow when we find out she donated to the president who appointment the Supreme Court Justice that wrote the opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade. To say she didn’t know that George W. Bush would do this is to say she’s willfully ignorant or, at best, insincere. Neither is desirable in a candidate for the U.S. Senate. Anyone who really cares about women’s rights left the Republican Party in 1980. She stayed in until 2015.
The columnist may be ‘nonpartisan’ but not non-biased. The story left out context, such as the long time political leanings of the Snyder family. For the reasons why, you can guess, believe what this columnist decides to write, or find out from a legitimate source.
Tammy had some good sense in the past making some good donations, then Murphy got a hold of her.
Jim Saxton was an honorable man and well-loved by his district. I had the privilege of voting for him many times over the years. That you call him an extremist speaks volumes about you.
Regardless of who Tammy Murphy gave money to, I don’t see that she has any qualifications whatsoever to be a United States Senator.
I have to laugh when commenters use “reproductive rights” as a campaign issue. “Reproductive rights” is a buzzword phrase meaning “Murder of babies”. The Democrat Party is the party of Murder, Voter Fraud, Corruption, Treason, Sedition, Insurrection, Criminal Racketeering, and Socialists/Communists.
This is what the Socialists and Communists did and continue to do. They would run on such platforms as murder, voter fraud, criminal racketeering. How do you think Lenin and Stalin came to power in the old Communist Soviet Union? They murdered their political and military adversaries. The murdered the “undesirables and deplorables” of the opposition. How do you think the Nazis came to power? They murdered their political and military adversaries. The murdered the “undesirables and deplorables” of the opposition.
Today’s Democrat Party–the Party of the racist KKK, Southern Redshirts and Brown Shirts–also murder their political and military opposition.
Just look at the Clinton Hit List of over 50 people murdered are mysteriously killed by suicide when they shot themselves in the back 3 times. How about recent victims, like Obama’s chef, who overheard too much and was drowned for it? Or, Trump’s money manager murdered in a car jacking?