Freshmen Reps. Face Endless Campaigning

Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Pa. greets commuters at a rail station in Cornwells Heights Pa., Monday, April 23, 2007. Nearly every Monday since taking office in January, the 33-year-old Iraq war veteran has headed out to suburban Philadelphia train stations at dawn to meet voters. After that, he gets in his car and drives to Capitol Hill. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) (Matt Rourke - AP)

CORNWELLS HEIGHTS, Pa. -- Rep. Patrick Murphy hasn't let the fact that he was elected to Congress in November put a stop to his campaigning.

Nearly every Monday since he took office in January, the 33-year-old freshman Democrat and Iraq war veteran has headed out to suburban Philadelphia train stations at dawn to greet voters. After that, he gets into his car for the three-hour drive to Capitol Hill.

"You don't win until you win re-election," Murphy said one recent morning as he introduced himself to bleary-eyed commuters, many of whom congratulated him on his election victory. "The first one's to get your foot in the door."

Campaign season has already ramped up for many House seats, even though the 2008 election is still more than a year away.

Some in this year's crop of congressional freshmen are finding they must be constant campaigners, with growing pressure to raise money, the threat of a rematch from a defeated incumbent and the Democrat-Republican tug-of-war for political dominance in Congress.

Murphy's opponent last fall, former Republican Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, has not ruled out a challenge. Former Republican Rep. Melissa Hart, who also was ousted in the 2006 election, is still weighing her options in western Pennsylvania.

In Kansas and New Hampshire, Republicans Jim Ryun and Jeb Bradley, both rejected by voters in November, are already actively campaigning.

"I'm Congressman Jim Ryun," Ryun told an anti-abortion rally in January, despite the fact that his Democratic opponent, Nancy Boyda, had already been sworn in.

Rep. Tom Cole, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said the early campaigning for 2008 is partly due to what he calls the "whither-America" factor _ meaning, there's no incumbent president or vice president seeking office and control of the House and Senate is in play while the nation confronts big issues like the Iraq war.

"I think that breeds more rapid political activity than you normally would have," Cole said.

For incumbents, particularly freshmen who haven't had as much time to develop name recognition in their home districts, that means added pressure to raise enough money to elevate their profiles and deal with potential challengers. That's particularly true in expensive media markets like the Philadelphia suburbs, where Murphy defeated Fitzpatrick by only about 1,500 votes.

It all puts Murphy in a posture where he's spending less time with his wife and baby, and more time in places like the Cornwells Heights train station, where he tells voters to give him a call if they need help.