Murphy’s Game

Pat Caddell, Roger Ailes, Lee Atwater, James Carville--each election cycle produces a new media star among the egomaniacal, insanely competitive ranks of high-profile political consultants.

Next--Mike Murphy?

Unless you are a politician or consultant yourself, you probably have never heard Murphy’s name, but if Lamar Alexander gains the Republican nomination, you almost certainly will. In a political and media culture that has made a mini-industry of simultaneously glorifying and demonizing political handlers, becoming the hot consultant of the year guarantees one man--they are almost all men--an intense bath of publicity followed by an almost guaranteed shower of cash.

The 32-year-old Murphy seems well poised to collect.

Like Carville, who guided Bill Clinton to victory, and Atwater, who did the same for George Bush, Murphy combines some key qualities for success--an image of brash aggressiveness and a talent for colorful quotes. He keeps his hair long and sloppy and avoids ties, but hecarries expensive leather briefcases and cultivates the image--so helpful for success--of being not quite housebroken. “We were the guerrilla consultants,” he says, contrasting his early work with that of his more staid, older Republican counterparts.

Murphy grew up outside Detroit--”the irritating Republican in a family full of Irish Catholic Democrats.” Attending Georgetown University in Washington in the early days of the Reagan Administration, he took over the campus Young Republicans organization--then went to work for the National Conservative Political Action Committee, which specialized in running attacks against Democratic members of Congress. By the time he was 19, Murphy says, he learned an important lesson. “I saw that a lot of people who run campaigns are paralyzed by fear, afraid they’ll make a mistake, so they’re on the defensive,” he says. “I’m sort of a bomb thrower.”

In 1984, his senior year of college, he helped a long-shot Republican win a congressional seat from Long Island, and a career was born. By last year, when he designed ads for a slew of successful congressional candidates and one prominent near miss--retired Lt. Col. Oliver L. North--Murphy had risen to the top of the GOP’s most-watched list.

As for Alexander, “he just plain impressed me,” Murphy says. While the smart money these days is on Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, for whom Murphy worked briefly in 1988, Murphy insists Alexander has a clear shot. (Dole and Gramm have several consultants--but none of them has the Murphy clout.)

Dole will fade, Murphy says, and “it will come down to us and Gramm. We’re going to have likability and being outside Washington. He’ll have the hard right. That’s a fair fight.”