What do these people have in common?

MICHAEL MULLOWNEY, of Newton MA?
J RICHARD and CAROL MUNRO, of New Canaan CT?
LEE MURDOCH, of Medford OR?
JOHN S MURK, of Cardiff by the Sea CA?
RICHARD MURPHEY, of Columbus OH?
CHARLES D MURPHY III, of Lafayette and Sea Ranch CA?
DONALD MURPHY of St Louis and Kirkwood MO?
HARRY L MURPHY, of Pacific Grove CA?
LINDA MYERS, of Sapulpa OK?
JOEL MUST, of Bloomfield Hills MI?
CARL MURRAY, of Indianapolis IN?
DAVID MURTON, of La Mesa CA?

You noticed these names all start with ‘M’? Remarkable! Observant citizens such as yourselves are the lifeblood of representative democracy!

Here’s another thing they have in common: all made FEC reportable contributions of $200 or more to John McCain’s 2000 presidential primary campaign. But wait! There’s more!!!

In particular, they made these contributions in February, 2000 — after McCain’s New Hampshire primary win, when observant citizens (such as yourselves, no doubt) observed the low-down dirty rotten Rovian campaign George W Bush contrived against McCain in South Carolina … and reacted with alarm.

In even greater particularity, all are listed among the (150 or so) contributors on the same FEC reporting page as the $500 contribution by Darragh Murphy that led a few of our less strategically-minded brethren to conclude she who founded PumaPAC must be a Republican operative.

And now to the major point:

All of the named contributors have histories of FEC reportable contributions only to Democratic candidates and committees — with the sole exception of McCain 2000.

Here’s the honor roll again, with added detail.
• MICHAEL MULLOWNEY, of Newton MA ($250 to Niki Tsongas in 2007, $200 Joe Moakley 1999)
• J RICHARD and CAROL MUNRO, of New Canaan CT ($800 DNC 1994/1995/1996)
• LEE MURDOCH, of Medford OR ($500 Bill Bradbury 2002, $250 Howard Dean 2003, $1850 Barack Obama 2007, $1,500 Steve Novick 2008)
• JOHN S MURK, of Cardiff by the Sea CA ($250 Vic Fazio 1996)
• RICHARD MURPHEY, of Columbus OH ($1,000 Bill Bradley 1999-2000, $250 Maryellen O’Shaughnessey, $4,600 Hillary Clinton 2007)
• CHARLES D MURPHY III, of Lafayette and Sea Ranch CA ($2,000 John Kerry 2004)
• DONALD MURPHY of St Louis and Kirkwood MO ($500 DNC 2004)
• LINDA MYERS, of Sapulpa OK ($500 Bill Settle(D) 2000, $850 Glen Johnson 1996)
• JOEL MUST, of Bloomfield Hills MI ($500 DSCC 2004)
• CARL MURRAY, of Indianapolis IN ($250 Kerry 2004)
• DAVID MURTON, of La Mesa CA ($200 DNC 2004, $400 DCCC 2004/2007)

Another 18 of these February 2000 Murphy-page contributors gave primarily or exclusively to Republicans.

[Among these, I spotted Ralph and Karen Munro, of Olympia, WA. Ralph is my state’s long-serving and well-respected former Secretary of State, who spent a political lifetime trying to nudge his Republican Party back toward the center. I last met Ralph when he stopped in on Election Night to congratulate one of my (yes, Democratic) candidates.]

Another half-dozen contributors were mixed by party — a combination of real independents, real big-time influence peddlers, and real eccentrics. (Bill Bradley + Rick Lazio + Ron Paul = ???) In none of these personal political palettes did I notice a major stripe of Bush money.

Another 30+ individuals who gave to McCain in this critical interval have no other FEC reported lifetime contributions.

The effort to derail Bush in the 2000 primaries did not succeed … but it had a game chance, and it was worth the effort. Savvy Democrats crossed over with their dollars (on the order of 2,500 individuals if we extrapolate from this small sample), and votes (hundreds of thousands, re-registering briefly in nonpartisan status as necessary in some states).

One of these was Darragh Murphy — not the founder of PUMA, but a savvy Democratic citizen-activist who founded PumaPAC in only the third day of PUMA’s viral contagion.