Check's in the mail, consultant says

Republican strategist Mike Murphy speaks during a taping of "Meet the Press" in June.
(REUTERS)

By Brian C. Mooney, Globe Staff

When the 2008 presidential campaign season was warming up last year, it created a quandary for Republican strategist and media consultant Mike Murphy.

John McCain and Mitt Romney were both considering running, and Murphy had been chief campaign adviser to both in the past. So he vowed to sit out the 2008 campaign if both decided to jump into the race. Which they did. Complicating matters further, Tommy Thompson, the former Wisconsin governor and another past Murphy client, later jumped into the GOP race.

So Murphy, who lives in Los Angeles and said he is now working on a screenplay for a possible TV series, says he decided to make contributions to all three. A Globe search of Federal Election Commission records shows that he donated $2,300, the maximum for an individual, to McCain, the Arizona senator, on Feb. 27, and $1,000 to Thompson's campaign about three weeks later.

But the Globe could find no record of a donation to Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, and a Romney campaign official said it has no record of a contribution from Murphy.

Murphy said today he thought he sent Romney a check for the $2,300 maximum around the time he gave to McCain, but after checking his records realized he hadn't.

"I'm sending Mitt a check today," he said.