Elected 1992, seat up 2004 Born: Oct. 11, 1950, Seattle Home: Seattle Education: WA St. U., B.A. 1972 Religion: catholic Marital Status: married (Rob)

Career:

• Political: Shoreline Schl. Bd., 1985-89, Pres., 1985-86; WA Senate, 1988-92.

DC Office: 173 RSOB 202-224-2621; Fax: 202-224-0238; Web site: www.murray.senate.gov

State Offices:

Committees:

• DSCC Chairman
.
• Appropriations: Agriculture & Rural Development; Commerce, Justice, State & Judiciary; Energy & Water Development; Interior; Labor, HHS & Education; Transportation (Chmn.).
• Health, Education, Labor & Pensions: Aging; Children & Families.
• Veterans' Affairs.

Patty Murray is one of the Democrats whose election made 1992 "the year of the woman." Murray grew up in Bothell, the daughter of a disabled veteran, graduated from Washington State University in 1972, married and stayed home to raise her children. "Our culture needs to value parents who stay at home much more than they do," she said in 1996. In 1980, when she was in Olympia trying to save a parent education class she was teaching at Shoreline Community College from being cut from the budget, a state legislator told her gruffly, "You're just a mom in tennis shoes; you can't make a difference." As she had said later, "Almost every woman I've ever met in politics got into it because she was mad about something." But like many committed public employees, she won her fight; then she ran for the Shoreline School District board, lost, was appointed and then elected, and served as president. In 1988 she challenged a Republican state senator, knocked on 17,000 doors, and won the seat. Her first great cause there was extending a family leave bill to include leave for a parent whose child is sick or dying; she threatened to put the proposal on the ballot, and won the issue; she worked on school bus safety, "negative option" mail orders, accidental pesticide exposure--the warp and woof of everyday life. Then in late 1991 she decided to run against U.S. Senator Brock Adams, who was under a cloud from charges of sexual harassment and later decided not to seek reelection.

Amid a crowd of better-known conventional male politicians, Murray, with her flat accent and "mom in tennis shoes" line, attracted most of the attention and most of the votes. In the all-party primary, her main Democratic opponent was former Congressman Don Bonker, who had narrowly lost a Senate nomination in 1988. But Murray won 28% to Bonker's 19%. Meanwhile, three well-known Republicans vied: Congressman Rod Chandler won 20% to 16% for state Senator (and former opponent of George McGovern in South Dakota) Leo Thorsness and 11% for King County Executive Tim Hill. Murray sprinted to a big lead in polls, and in November won 54%-46%, carrying 60% in King County and winning Puget Sound and the west. Her margins over Chandler were similar to Bill Clinton's over George Bush, except in eastern Washington, which Clinton nearly carried but where Murray ran 10% behind.

In the Senate Murray has a largely liberal voting record and an unconventional approach. In her first years, she refused to see Washington industry lobbyists; in a scathing Seattle Times profile in 1996, Robert Nelson wrote of Murray, "Colleagues, lobbyists and former staff members view her as indifferent to issues that can't be explained through anecdotes about her family and neighbors." When Democrats were in control, she did not stake out areas of expertise, though she did get a seat on Appropriations. She attracted attention instead by demanding that the Senate Ethics Committee subpoena Oregon Senator Bob Packwood's diaries (he later resigned under threat of expulsion). In time she worked on Washington issues: seeking funding for cleanup of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, trying to preserve the undammed Hanford Reach of the Columbia as a wild and scenic river, delaying with Slade Gorton the Alaska fisheries bill until a provision hurting Washington fishermen was removed. She opposed Gorton and Oregon's Mark Hatfield on timber cutting issues; their measure to allow some clear-cutting of old-growth forests passed in March 1995, and her plan to allow environmentalists to challenge timber sales in court failed.

Several years into her first term, Murray developed more legislative expertise and established a focus on certain issues; she also worked closely with Washington's economic interests and, on some issues, with Gorton. She pledges a "Commitment to Children," with money for children's health care, child care, and technology in the classroom. She formed the Senate Advisory Youth Involvement Team (SAY IT!) to meet with kids via her computer. She backed Clinton's commitment to 100,000 new teachers and tried to push it into an education bill without providing financing; that was beaten 50-49 in April 1998, with Gorton leading the opposition, instead arguing for unrestricted block grants for school districts. In May 1999 and June 2000 Murray's amendments to allow abortions in military hospitals were narrowly defeated. The Senate also rejected her 1999 amendment to maintain the five-acre limit on waste dumps in mines on federal lands. After a pipeline explosion in Bellingham killed three in June 1999, Murray sponsored a bill to let the states impose stricter safety requirements on pipelines; it passed the Senate in April 2000 and, the House having not acted, again in February 2001.

In June 2000 she had the satisfaction of seeing Clinton designate 200,000 acres of sagebrush country around the Hanford Reach as a national monument. Murray defended Microsoft against the antitrust case brought by the Clinton Justice Department; she criticized Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's decision in November 1999. "Where is the consumer harm in constantly improving your products without raising prices?" she asked. "I join many commentators who question whether this case is even relevant, given the dynamic changes in the technology industry." She has sponsored bills to help apple farmers diversify their varieties and to help sell apples overseas. She and Congressman Jim McDermott sponsored a bill to name the Seattle federal courthouse after William Nakamura, a Washington G.I. who was killed in World War II and posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. Murray is one of the Senate's strongest proponents of permanent normal trade relations with China--a position strongly backed by Boeing; "The best way we can affect human rights in China is to have a good conversation going with them," she said in 1996. She also favors relaxing export restrictions on encryption technology. In January 2001 she mediated a 45-day strike by the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild against the Seattle Times.

Murray was at first thought vulnerable in the 1998 election, but won handily. Her Republican opponent, Congresswoman Linda Smith, was another mom in tennis shoes--a strong opponent of abortion, backer of campaign finance regulation and opponent of free trade, a favorite of Ross Perot who was mistrusted by the Republican leadership. In the all-party primary, Smith won the Republican nomination, with 32% of all votes, to 15% for former King County prosecutor Christopher Bayley; Murray won 46% of all votes, with 2% for nuisance Democrats. But the primary was September 15, during the period when Bill Clinton's numbers were lowest in 1998; with the release of the Starr Report his numbers went up again, and Washington is one state where there was a perceptible move of opinion toward Democrats between September and October. Murray campaigned as a public official who had addressed issues of importance to Washington voters--"apples to aerospace, high-tech to Hanford, saving salmon to educating kids." She raised far more money than Smith, who spent much of her money on direct mail solicitations rather than TV ads. National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Mitch McConnell, the party's leading opponent of campaign finance reform, sent only about $100,000 to Smith; he argued that polls showed the race to be unpromising, which the results suggest may have been true. On election day and before (about one-third of Washington's votes are cast by absentee ballot) Murray won 58%-42%, winning 63% in the Seattle area and 55% in west Washington; Smith carried the east by only 51%-49%.

In December 1998 Murray was named vice chairwoman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. In December 2000, just as the critical victory of Washington's Maria Cantwell was being clinched by absentee ballots, Murray was named chairwoman of the committee. Her responsibility is to match the $85 million raised by her and her predecessor Bob Torricelli.

Group Ratings
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2000	90	71	71	57	46	96	14	64	8	9	8
1999	100	--	100	100	64	--	1	59	4	--	--

National Journal Ratings
	1999 LIB	--	1999 CONS		2000 LIB	--	2000 CONS
Economic	83%	--	16%		76%	--	22%
Social	88%	--	0%		66%	--	21%
Foreign	78%	--	13%		95%	--	0%

Key Votes of the 106th Congress
1. Educ. Savings Accts. N 2. Prescrip. Drug Benefit Y 3. Delay Ergonomic Standards N 4. Phase Out Estate Tax Y 5. Review Movie Violence N 6. Gun Show Bckgrnd. Checks Y		7. Ban Part.-Birth Abortion N  8. Broaden Hate Crimes List Y  9. NATO War in Serbia Y 10. Table Cuba Travel Ban N 11. Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Y 12. Perm. Trade with China Y

Election Results
1998 general	Patty Murray (D)	1,103,184	(58%)
	Linda Smith (R)	785,377	(42%)
1998 primary	Patty Murray (D)	479,009	(46%)
	Linda Smith (R)	337,407	(32%)
	Chris Bayley (R)	155,864	(15%)
	Other	72,109	(7%)
1992 general	Patty Murray (D)	1,197,973	(54%)
	Rod Chandler (R)	1,020,829	(46%)

Campaign Finance
1998	Receipts	Receipts from PACs	Expenditures
Patty Murray (D)	$5,341,967	$861,629	$5,600,592
Linda Smith (R)	$5,234,596	$687	$5,159,527