Pat Murphy

From dKosopedia

Category: 2006 Iowa lower house candidates (D)

Pat Murphy (D) is the Speaker of the Iowa State House, where he represents District 28.

Pat was born August 24, 1959, the ninth of ten children in the family of Larry and Eileen Murphy. He was born, raised and educated in Dubuque where his father worked for U.S. West and AT&T.

Pat graduated from Wahlert High School in 1977 and received his B.A. from Loras College in 1980 in speech communication with minors in political science and history. In addition to operating his own business, he has worked in various capacities at Mercy Health Center, CyCare Systems Inc. as a quality assurance analyst/document specialist, and Hillcrest Family Services as a youth care worker.

Pat married Teri Ann Gulick in 1980. Teri is an emergency room nurse at Finley Hospital in Dubuque. They have four children, all of whom attended St. Joseph’s grade school in Dubuque: Jacob, John, Joe and Natalie. They attend St. Joseph’s the Worker Catholic Church in Dubuque.

Pat has been a state representative since winning a special election in 1989. He was the ranking Democratic member of the House Appropriations Committee from 1995-2003 where his responsibility was to oversee the entire state budget for his Democratic colleagues. He was elected Democratic minority leader in 2003 after Dick Myers resigned the position, and was re-elected leader following the 2004 elections. As leader of the House Democrats, he directed the 2004 legislative campaign that picked up three additional Democratic seats in the House