Murphy assessed the state of the campaign thusly:
We think we're in great shape in this first three months. Dick has laid out his vision for a Gephardt presidency. We're up and running real strongly in Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina and Oklahoma... We exceeded our finanancial goals in the 1st Quarter and we're well on a path of doing 50 to 100 percent more in the 2nd Quarter. We've got strong labor support. Dick Gephardt is proud to call himself a candidate who will stand up for working families and labor unions. So all the components of our strategy [are] in place and we feel like we've got the best candidate who has the best message...DEMOCRACY IN ACTION asked Murphy what makes for a successful campaign:
A successful campaign is one that empowers a candidate. Dick Gephardt has a vision and a commitment to fighting for working families that goes back to his childhood, who he is, and how he grew up, and all we want to do as a campaign is enable and amplify Dick Gephardt's ideas and his motivation for seeking the presidency. That's our philosophy is that this is about Dick Gephardt; it's about the difference that he can make as president, and it's about getting him in the best position to win....and about the job of campaign manager:
We've got a great team in our national campaign as well as putting together strong organizations in the early states. So as campaign manager it's more you're the chief executive officer of the campaign. It's about the direction of the campaign; it's about strategy; it's about the overall policy. We've got good line coordinators in the campaign, we've got good strategists in the campaign so...it's just to keep things on course, to set the overall goals and objectives and monitor our success in achieving them.