Correspondence from Patrick Murphy

Imagine if you will that you have a supervisor that hardly talks to you. He isn’t your direct supervisor, so there isn’t a need, but the opportunity arises from time to time and you don’t run away, still it never happens. It never happens, until the company announces that since times are hard there aren’t as many bonuses for executives, so only those with a certain approval rating among employees will be eligible to receive bonuses. Immediately he begins not only talking with you, but buying you muffins once a week and sending you encouraging texts. Certainly you will enjoy the muffins, and maybe even the texts, although they are a little creepy, but you won’t see the gestures the same way as you would have had you been chatting with him over a blueberry muffin since you started working with him. It’s just common sense. Which is why I’m not sure why my Congressman, Patrick Murphy, has sent me five or six letters on official Congress letterhead over the last four or five weeks. Now don’t get me wrong, I love receiving official mail from Congress as much as the next guy, and the letters were full of great stuff, but is soured a bit by the fact that they were the first five letters I’d received since he was elected in 2006. It’s a great idea to check in with constituents once in a while, but not as great an idea if you do it only before an incredibly close election when incumbent Democrats are about as secure as passenger pigeons at the dawn of the Twentieth Century. I don’t mind having taxpayer money spent on reaching out to constituents, but I’d rather not have it seem quite so crass and self serving. I’m still voting for him, because he’s the best candidate, but I’m a little disappointed to see such a glaring absence of common sense and respect for constituents.