Matthew Berry

It’s not exactly a heartfelt, ringing endorsement, but former GOP candidate for congress Matthew Berry has written a letter to supporters saying that he will vote for Patrick Murray.

Murray, who defeated Berry in June’s Republican primary, raised the ire of many local Republicans by sending out a controversial last-minute mailer about Berry. One local conservative blogger called the mailer “foul” and “disgusting,” although Murray maintained that his campaign’s conduct was aboveboard.

Nonetheless, two months after the mailer went out, Berry appears to be trying to bury the hatchet.

In the letter, Berry writes that “Patrick is generally on the right side while [incumbent Democrat] Jim Moran and [Green Party candidate] Ron Fisher are generally on the wrong side.” He also notes that “Patrick is the only candidate who will vote to give Republicans control of the U.S. House of Representatives.”

One month ago, Berry would only go so far as to tell an audience of Arlington Republicans that Murray “deserves our respect.”

(Earlier we mentioned the conspicuous lack of the word “endorse” in the letter, but it turns out the subject line was “Endorsement.”)

Despite a lopsided fundraising disadvantage, retired Army colonel Patrick Murray managed to narrowly defeat his organized and well-connected opponent, government attorney Matthew Berry, in a contest to see who will face ten-term Democratic congressman Jim Moran in the fall.

Berry called Murray to concede the race just before 9:00 last night. Murray won with 7,133 votes, or 51.75 percent of the vote, to Berry’s 6651 vote, or 48.25 percent.

Berry had an edge in Arlington and Alexandria, but unofficial voting numbers show that Murray won by a relatively wide margin in Falls Church and Fairfax County.

Murray issued the following statement today:

From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you for the faith and trust you have shown by nominating me as your candidate to restore honor and dignity to the representation of Virginia’s 8^th District seat in Congress.  I pledge to you my best effort to reward your trust come November.

I thank Matthew Berry and his supporters. Matthew has my appreciation and congratulations on an energetic and spirited campaign.  His commitment to the Republican principles of limited government and individual responsibility energized an army of Republican voters eager for change from profligate spending policies of the Obama-Pelosi-Moran regime in Washington.

The press has taken notice there were almost 14,000 voters in this Republican Congressional Primary.  This clearly shows the high level of discontent among 8^th District voters with Jim Moran’s long record of divisive and partisan representation.

We kicked off our campaign this morning on FOX5 at 9:00am this morning.  Join the Murray Momentum as we work together to take our country back and send Jim Moran into political retirement.

Matthew Berry says he’s “feeling very good” about his chances in today’s Republican congressional primary.

The former government lawyer has a more than 2-to-1 fundraising advantage over his opponent, retired Army colonel Patrick Murray, and Berry says his campaign’s internal numbers “look very good.”

Voters “seem to be responding well to our positive message,” Berry said. He has spent much of the past 48 hours knocking on doors, calling likely voters and attending events.

One might think Berry would be envious of Murray’s slick, air conditioned campaign bus, which has been making dozens of stops around the 8th District over the past five days, but Berry insists that old-fashioned door-to-door campaigning is actually more effective.

“My focus is on targeting likely primary voters,” he said in a telephone interview conducted Sunday night. “I personally don’t think the best way to do that is get on a bus and wander around the district, but everybody makes their own campaign choices.”

Berry, an unabashed policy wonk whose main campaign focus has been on fiscal issues, says Republican voters should support him because he has more specific solutions to the country’s problems than his opponent.

He also says that he would be more electable in the general election (a claim also made by Murray).

Berry points to the Murray campaign’s attempts to paint him as the “establishment” or “insider” candidate as an indication of why Murray may be vulnerable in the fall.

“He’s said that I spent too much time inside the Beltway — and the last time I looked at a map most people in Virginia’s 8th District happen to live inside the Beltway,” Berry said. “If his strategy for getting elected in the 8th District is to denigrate people who live inside the Beltway, then he’s going to get slaughtered in the general election.”

Republican congressional candidate Patrick Murray may be a 24-year veteran of the U.S. Army, but he’s only a three-month veteran of electoral politics. And that doesn’t worry him one bit.

“I think [voters] like the fact that I’m not a politician,” Murray said on Friday, during an interview on board his newly-rented campaign bus. “People talk to me and they say, ‘you don’t talk like a politician,’ and I take that as a compliment because I’m not.”

Murray says his ‘Time to Lead’ bus tour, on which he embarked Thursday and will continue through Tuesday’s GOP primary, is part of an “insurgent ground campaign.” He’s visiting Metro stops, grocery stores, farmer’s markets and other high-traffic spots in an effort to get out the vote.

“We are cautiously optimistic but we’re running like we’re 50 points behind. We’re getting up before dawn and going to bed after dark. Our goal is to get to all 151 precincts in the eighth district.”

Murray may not be 50 points behind, but his fundraising has consistently lagged opponent Matthew Berry, a former general counsel at the Federal Communications Commission.

“My opponent has raised a lot more money than I have but he’s raised it from the outside,” Murray said. “He’s definitely the establishment guy.”

Later, Murray took another shot at Berry’s inside-the-Beltway career.

“I have a lot of experience in what I like to call the real world,” he said. “My opponent has none, he’s a federal government lawyer. There’s nothing wrong with federal government lawyers but that’s his sole perspective.”

“This is a year where we need some maturity, some leadership, and somebody in there who can stand up to both sides and get some things done,” Murray said.

Murray insists that he would have the best shot of defeating incumbent Rep. Jim Moran in the fall — a feat that no Republican has managed since Moran first won the eighth district congressional seat in 1991.

“I feel very strongly with my head and my heart that I’m the best candidate,” Murray said.

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