Rep. Patrick Murphy Picks Up Environmental Endorsements Denied Him in ’06

Freshman Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.) has won the endorsement of the League of Conversation Voters in his bid to retain his seat in a suburban Philadelphia swing district.

When Murphy challenged then-Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick (R) for the seat in 2006, the one-term Republican scooped up crucial endorsements from the League of Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club, which also had backed his Republican predecessor, Jim Greenwood.

Environmental issues are important to voters in Murphy’s district, which has seen rapid development of its rural areas over the past decade and has been trending Democratic in recent election cycles, culminating in Murphy’s victory in 2006.

Murphy previously secured the Sierra Club’s endorsement for the 2008 election.

“Patrick Murphy has demonstrated remarkable environmental leadership in his first term,” League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski said in a statement. Murphy scored a 91 percent rating from the group for this first two years in office.

Murphy, the only Iraq war veteran in Congress, is opposed this year by Republican businessman Tom Manion, a retired Marine Corps colonel whose son was killed in Iraq last year.

–Jeffrey Young