Tim Murtaugh, campaign spokesman for Linda McMahon, checks his iPhone on the night of McMahon's GOP Senate primary victory, Aug. 14, 2012. Murtaugh has left the campaign.
What the late George Steinbrenner was to managers of the New York Yankees, Linda McMahon is to flacks.
For the second time in a month, McMahon’s campaign press shop is going through a shake-up.
Tim Murtaugh, who shepherded McMahon through the final month of the GOP primary race, is out as McMahon’s spokesman.
“Tim’s no longer with the campaign and we wish him nothing but the best,” Corry Bliss, McMahon’s campaign manager, told Hearst Connecticut Newspapers.
Bliss would not elaborate on the circumstances of Murtaugh’s departure or say whether he resigned or was let go.
Efforts to reach Murtaugh Wednesday were unsuccessful.
Kate Duffy, the deputy communications director, will handle media inquiries until Murtaugh’s successor is named, which Bliss said should be shortly.
One of the more memorable exchanges between Murtaugh and the media came in mid-July, when McMahon was grilled over her tax returns after a television debate, with the veteran mouthpiece cutting off reporters’ questions.
Murtaugh previously handled press for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation and the Republican Governors Association, as well as the Republican Party of Virginia and former Virginia attorney general and gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore.
He recently did press for New York Congresswoman Nan Hayworth, whose previous flack resigned after urging people to “hurl some acid” at Democratic female lawmakers.
Murtaugh succeeded Erin Isaac, who left McMahon’s campaign last month to return to her native Florida for unspecified family reasons.