Noticias

The other day I was talking with my dear friend and Passaic County GOP chair, Peter Murphy, two days before his son’s wedding, Peter was excited and animated. His excitement was clear because the wedding was the fourth item he mentioned in our conversation. For those who don’t know Peter, you need to understand that Chairman Murphy operates 24/7 in this swirling eddy that we call politics. Why is that? Politics is in Peter’s blood, it runs deep in his veins, and he lives politics, breathes politics, and talks politics like we take in oxygen.  When I say politics is in his DNA, it is literally imbued in his chromosomes and it runs through his being, even when he is sleeping.

I have known Peter since the 1990’s, and throughout those years, I have witnessed Peter grow from a twenty-something year old rookie chair with big shoes to fill to a mature, focused, grounded senior political advisor who many of the top political players seek out for his distinguished counsel. Be forewarned, this usually occurs over a shot and beer.

Over the last few decades, I have witnessed Peter grow into the master of this trade and I have seen him maneuver, orchestrate, or fight over political territory both large and small. Peter has taught many of us the finer points of political gamesmanship and brinkmanship. In modern times, Peter is considered a legend by both parties. It is no stretch to say that Peter has been involved in creating and disposing of more political personalities than Genghis Khan or Fionn mac Cumhaill ever did.  Getting the picture?

This was not happenstance, but as I said, part of Peter’s DNA.  Peter’s dad, Red Murphy,  was an old school true power broker who made deals in smoky back rooms, literally and figuratively smoke-filled back rooms. As many of us know, Red died way too early. At the time, Red was the quintessential powerbroker in the northeast of New Jesey. Red was the GOP Chair of Passaic, and he held a collection of elected officials in his palm, and he was in the room when the selection of the next Governor, Senator or Congressmember was made, and that is no exaggeration.

It is important to note that Red had a gift, a gift beyond making or breaking careers of starry-eyed politicians. Red’s gift was that he practiced and preached about the moral and political good of helping the “little guy.” Red told those in charge that they had a duty to provide a decent job, with benefits to the individual who didn’t have a college degree or a wealthy family name. Red’s gift was to find and give out as many working-class jobs to as many working-class people as possible. He would rather have four $50K (adjusted for inflation) jobs to hand out than one $200K to job. Red’s rationale was simple. You could pull those four families out of poverty forever and break that cycle.  Chances are, many of those workers would remember Red’s action and maybe help put him in the next election cycle or so. As for the one $200K person, chances are they forget immediately how they received their first paycheck. But that is an entirely different column.

When Red passed away, he called his son Peter to his hospital bed and made him make two promises. The one was that young Peter would run the Passaic County Republican Organization and the second involved Red’s brother, which we can’t write about. Needless to say, Peter took those two orders and did exactly as expected. Following orders—sound familiar?

Over the years, Peter and I have grown from political allies into family friends,  we have served as each other’s consiglieres, therapists and we have been to each other’s family weddings and other family events. We talk often about the life in politics and life without. Peter is a very smart and very wise man, both in life and business. Peter is a rarity, an enduring powerbroker who learned the trade from the best. Peter has now schooled his son Brendan in his footsteps and the newly married Brendan will come back from his honeymoon as the chair of the very powerful Passaic Valley Sewerage Authority.

Back to our discussion. Peter was his excited and exuberant self, and he said something profound. He said we have known each other forever and he marveled at the fact that we were still friends, and we were still swimming in the public life. Peter said to me: “Kevin the gift that you have is that you have always brought people together…” and he went to add “…and you bring together people who would never get together, and you just make things happen and those things last a lifetime.”

I was somewhat taken aback by that rather generous statement.

It caused me to think about that profound observation and now I put pen to paper and somehow it gave birth to this column. I have never considered myself with any so-called gifts, but I know I work hard and am relentless at every task and I know if I focus long enough– some good things usually follow. But a gift?

That conversation got me thinking, maybe we all have gifts, but the question is do we all know what that gift is and are we using it to its highest and best use?

Are we good at connecting people? Are we terrific problem solvers? Are we big thinkers? Are we schooled at mentoring? Can we raise money for worthy causes? Can we help senior citizens? Are we talented enough to coach the next generation?  Do we make people happy? Can we bring humor to dark places? Can we create joy in moments of need?

Perhaps the task of the day is to identify that gift or tell someone else what their gift is so they can pay it forward.

PS- Congratulations to the newlyweds,  Brendan and Alexis Murphy.

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