ST. PAUL — Last week, while up at the state Capitol, District 27A Rep. Rich Murray received a phone call.

On the other end of the receiver, from more than 90 miles away, came the small voice of one of his 10 young granddaughters.

“Where are you grandpa?” his 3-year-old granddaughter, Michaela, asked.

The call, Murray said, tugged at his heartstrings.

Murray, 53, a freshman Republican representative from Albert Lea, has always placed his family as a top priority. However, elected in November to the Minnesota House of Representatives, Murray has had to readjust his schedule a bit to make way for one of his new added priorities: his constituents.

“It’s been more overwhelming than I thought it would be, but it’s been a lot of fun,” he said, noting that he loves interacting with constituents.

With a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree already under his belt, Murray jokes that he’s now getting his doctorate in government.

Though extremely busy, he said he loves all he is learning.

“I’m thriving on it,” he said. “I love taking in all this knowledge and learning how things work.”

He sits on four committees, along with several subcommittees. In between his time on committees, on the House floor, and meeting with constituents, lobbyists and other representatives, he answers phone calls and e-mails.

His legislative assistant, Laura Larson, said Murray is a highly sought-after freshman representative, with his schedule being much fuller than most.

“I can only say great things about working for Rep. Murray,” Larson said. “He is professional, accessible and devotes tremendous amounts of time to his top priority: constituents. Beyond his dedication to his district, he always discusses his family; he is truly a family man.”

Murray said on a typical day up at the Capitol, he wakes up at 5:30 a.m., with meetings starting as early as 6:30 or 6:45 a.m.

Some days he has a rural caucus meeting, and then once a week he has a Bible study with some other Republican representatives.

Beyond that, he said he tries to get into his office early to check e-mails from constituents.

Then at 8:15 a.m., he’s off to committees.

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings he sits on the State Government Finance Committee and the Government Operations and Elections Committee.

On Mondays and Wednesdays, he participates in the Transportation Policy and Finance Committee, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays, he takes part in the Jobs and Economic Development Finance Committee.

Committee meetings usually wrap up around 2:15 p.m., after which he meets with constituents and lobbyists.

On Mondays and Thursdays thus far in the session, there have been House floor sessions at 3 p.m., though Murray said he anticipates those to be increasing as the session continues.

On days when there are not House floor sessions, he continues meeting with constituents and lobbyists throughout the afternoon.

He also tries to periodically check in with family throughout the day, and sometimes only has the time to grab a granola bar for lunch.

Usually around 5 or 6 p.m., he said, the offices in the State Office Building start clearing out, and that’s when it’s his time to start attacking all of his e-mails.

He said he usually tackles all of his House of Representatives e-mails first, but then, because he’s still running a business — ISC Financial Advisors — he then checks his work e-mails to answer questions from clients or his staff.

He usually works late into the night in his office.

Usually on Thursday evenings, Murray makes the trip back to Albert Lea where he stays until Monday morning.

But the work doesn’t stop there.

Though the weekend gives him time to spend what he describes as valuable time with his family, it’s also time for him to catch up with local groups and to attend various community events.

He said he thinks it’s important to be visible in the community and initiate conversations with people, so he can find out what issues they are concerned about.

“People need to let me know what’s on their mind so I know how to vote on things,” he said.

He noted he also tries to have his whole family over on the weekends.

His whole family — his wife, children and grandchildren — are still adapting to the change in his schedule and making little compromises where they can.

“I think it’s been a little tough on the granddaughters, but it’s been more tough on grandpa,” he said.

At the end of the day, Murray said he hopes to make wise decisions with his constituents — which include his family — in mind.One of the 72 Republican representatives currently in the House of Representatives, Murray said he considers two main questions when asking himself whether to vote on an issue: Is the vote a smart use of state money? Are we helping people, hurting people or not doing anything?

“I tell everybody, you’re not going to agree with every vote I make, but you can call me and we can discuss why I voted the way I did.”

State Rep. Rich Murray’s committee assignments

• Vice chairman of the Government Operations and Elections Committee
• Member of the Jobs and Economic Development Finance Committee
• Member of the State Government Finance Committee
• Member of the Transportation Policy and Finance Committee

Contact information for state Rep. Rich Murray:

• Mailing address: 439 State Office Building, 100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55155
• E-mail: rep.rich.murray@house.mn
• Phone: 651-296-8216

Fun facts about state Rep. Rich Murray:

• Murray and his wife, Sandy, have four children and 10 granddaughters.
• Murray wears a pin every day of the U.S. flag, given to him by his father after winning the November general election. He also wears a Minnesota House of Representatives pin, given to him when he was sworn in.

District 27A Rep. Rich Murray’s unemployment insurance bill:

Murray is chief authoring unemployment legislation that will expand and extend eligibility for people who are out of work.
The bill proposes to restore the opportunity for adult children of business owners to receive unemployment benefits to the same extent as any other employee.
Under current law, the spouse, parent or child (regardless of age) of a business owner may not receive more than five weeks of state unemployment benefits and up to 11 weeks of federal benefits.
It also proposes to change the state’s threshold for participating in the federal-state extended benefits program.
Under current law, to participate in the extended benefits program, the state’s current rate of unemployment must be at least 110 percent of the rate in the same time period in either of the prior two years.
The bill proposes to allow the comparison of the current level of unemployment in the state and the unemployment rates over the previous three years.
This would affect 55,000 Minnesotans.

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