Why a Former Aide to Sen. Patty Murray is Endorsing Her Republican Challenger

At a July campaign rally in Kirkland, Washington, where Tiffany Smiley was drumming up support for her bid to unseat Sen. Patty Murray, now in her 30th year in office, the Republican candidate struck up a conversation with a woman in the crowd.

What she did not realise was that she was speaking to her opponent's former national security adviser, Pam Norick - whose subsequent decision to endorse Smiley has also brought renewed scrutiny of an episode Murray's detractors say undermines the Democratic senator's long-standing commitment to women's rights.

"Standing up for women is such a huge part of my campaign," Smiley told Newsweek of a 1996 book that says Murray forced Norick to choose between her job and caring for her children. "This is very shocking to me. We need new blood in the Senate — women who will actually fight for women."

Murray did not respond to Newsweek's request for comment.

While the issue might not shift the needle in a vote that Murray is favored to win, polls have shown a surge of support for Smiley in the midterm election as Republicans try to gain control of the Senate and stymie President Joe Biden during the remaining two years of his term.

The allegations against Murray center on a passage in the book Women on the Hill: Challenging the Culture of Congress by journalist Clara Bingham. According to the book, Norick was hired in 1993 at a time she was pregnant with her first child and on the agreement she could work from home on Fridays. After her second child was born, she was given an ultimatum - even though her son was premature and needed extra medical care.

"Murray now maintained that Norick's four-day work week wasn't fair to the other employees," Bingham wrote in her book. "She claimed that she had always intended it to be a temporary arrangement. According to Murray, Norick had pushed her luck by having children only two years apart. No other senator, Murray insisted, would give an employee two maternity leaves in under three years."

Thus, Norick quit her job.

Smiley said the anecdote struck her as odd, given that Murray often described herself as a "mom in tennis shoes" who championed women's rights in the workplace and, early in her career as a U.S. senator, had bucked party leadership to amend a bill in order to give mothers the right to take time off to care for their ailing children without losing their jobs.

Norick did not cite the incident as the reason for her endorsement of Smiley, telling Newsweek that the Republican candidate "has her feet on the ground" and commending her for raising three children while supporting her husband through the trauma of being wounded by a suicide bomber during his military service in Iraq.

But in Norick's endorsement of Smiley, she said "My experience with Patty, as chronicled in the book Women on the Hill: Challenging the Culture of Congress, was painful."

The extent to which the issue influences voters remains to be seen, but Smiley has been climbing up in the polls.

Senate Control at Stake

For Republicans to take control of the Senate, they could well need a Smiley victory should the GOP fail in closer races such as those for Herschel Walker in Georgia, Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania and Blake Masters in Arizona. They each trail their Democrat opponent by less than three points, according to polling averages at RealClearPolitics, while Smiley is down 7.8 points.

A Seattle Times poll released Friday says that Murray leads by 8 points over Smiley, noting that Smiley has surged 10 points since a similar poll in July. Among women, Murray leads 55% to 35% with much of her support coming from urban areas while Smiley leads among independents and in rural communities.

"From a social scientific perspective, it would be very difficult to discern whether the former staffer's assertion will have an impact on the race," said Gregory Wawro, a professor of political science at Columbia University.

Amir Avin, a spokesperson for Murray's campaign, did not respond to Newsweek's requests for comment. In a general statement to the Seattle Times on Friday, Murray said: "I don't ever take any election for granted. I am focused on building an economy that works for everyone — not just billionaires and giant corporations. My anti-abortion Republican opponent has shown time and again she will be a rubber stamp for (current Senate minority leader) Mitch McConnell."

Abortion has been a rallying cry for Democrats since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision that made it a nationwide right earlier this year.

Smiley has said that she is against abortion, but that she opposes a federal ban and supports a Washington state law guaranteeing the right to abortion until fetal viability.

Experts note that the treatment of Senate staffers is rarely an issue for voters, but there is also the charge of hypocrisy.

"Murray is the favorite; her defeat would be an upset," said John Pitney, the Roy P. Crocker Professor of American Politics at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California. "But recent polls have shown that her lead is only in single digits. In light of the uncertainty of polling these days, it might be possible for Smiley to overtake her."

Wawro said he expected abortion rights to be a bigger issue than workplace rights for women.

Smiley is set to debate Murray in Spokane on Sunday.

In her endorsement for Smiley, Norick said she had initially been impressed by Murray's readiness to show flexibility over her childcare arrangements when she worked for her, but had been "devastated" when those were withdrawn.

"As every mother on the planet knows, of course there was no question of what I would 'choose.' I left my position in the U.S. Senate to ensure I could take care of my newborn's medical needs.

"Fast forward to 2022: I decided to seek out Tiffany Smiley, a political newcomer, to meet her and decide how best to cast my support and vote. At our first meeting, I found Tiffany smart, approachable, dynamic and inspiring. While I don't agree with Tiffany on all issues, I left the meeting intrigued. I did more research and ultimately decided to support Tiffany Smiley."