Sen. Patty Murray: From 'Mom in Tennis Shoes' to D.C. Power Broker

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17, 2010 — -- Long before there were Mama Grizzlies, Democrat Patty Murray was "just a mom in tennis shoes."

She still wears sensible shoes, but now Murray, the senior Senator from the state of Washington, is the highest ranking woman in the Senate, a member of her party's leadership with a seat on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

No longer an outsider, she is now running for reelection in today's primary as a tough political insider who can get things done in Washington and bring home the bacon for her state -- not the best resume items this year when voters are so concerned about government spending. Republicans have taken to calling her names like "Pork Patty" and "Queen of Pork."

One Washington, D.C.-based political action group turned Murray's famous tennis shoes against her in a Web video, which shows a woman walking in a pair of tennis shoes that become muddy. The woman walks on the backs of people meant to represent small businesses.

But Murray also has some successes of the Obama administration to point to -- she is an important operative in the Senate. And she helped reverse a Pentagon decision to give a lucrative government contract to a European company and instead opened bidding to Boeing, an important win for Washington state.

Washington has an open primary system, so any registered voter can vote for any candidate and the top two vote getters, regardless of their party affiliation, move on to the general election in November. Murray has been in office since 1992, when she was elected as an outside-the-establishment candidate.

But because of the open primary, Murray will actually be going head-to-head with the three major Republican candidates in the race. Murray is expected to easily advance to the general election, but what percent of the vote she gets -- more or less than 50 percent -- could be a bellwether for the fall.

The open primary system is engineered to make political parties less important and give more moderate candidates a better chance at a place on the ballot in the fall. But in Washington this year, with Murray as the Democratic incumbent, there has been a fight among Republicans for the conservative voters.