Patrick Murphy, a twenty-five year old resident of the Grove section in Lowell, is running as an independent candidate for the Massachusetts 5th Congressional district seat in a special election.

Murphy's ties to the district are many. Among the fifth generation of Murphys to call Lowell home, he is the son of longtime Lowell teachers Joan and Dan Murphy, and the grandson of Grace and the late William Bovitz and of the late Helen and George B. Murphy, a former Lowell city councilor and state representative. With his twin brother Daniel, he trained for several years as an amateur boxer at Ramahlo's West End Gym on Lawrence Street. Patrick graduated from Phillips Academy in Andover on a four-year scholarship, and has worked throughout the district since the age of sixteen with cousins Dan O'Connor and Joe Donlan as a laborer and now as a journeyman brick- and stonemason.

Patrick has, through scholarships and his own labor, attended American University, Trinity College Dublin and Emory University, but has chosen to continue his learning outside the traditional university system. While intensely independent-minded, he describes his political philosophy as "simply a deep and abiding concern for people."

Murphy enters this race independent of any donor, or group of donors, of any party or political organization, of pundits, pollsters, or political consultants. If elected, he would accept for his salary no more the median income of other workers here in the district, donating the balance to local charitable groups, and would forgo health insurance until every American has access to health care. "I am running," Murphy says, "not to become a member of an exclusive, affluent political class, but to exercise my rights and responsibilities fully as a citizen legislator on behalf of my fellow citizens."

Links to more on Murphy's political roots: http://richardhowe.com/?p=243