Jim Murtha is the Managing Partner of the National Field Resource Network and works out of the firm's Philadelphia office. Jim has a wide and varied background in the media and legislative and public affairs. Jim got his start in government affairs working as a lobbyist with the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-based lobbying firm, Greenlee Partners, where he represented dozens of corporate clients before the Pennsylvania legislature on legislative and regulatory matters. While at Greenlee he also directed many of the firm's grassroots campaigns. In the years before making the jump to the lobbying profession, he was television news Bureau Chief and Producer for the ABC affiliate (WPVI) in Philadelphia, then (and still) the nation's highest rated local television news station. While at WPVI, Murtha directed the station's statewide political coverage in addition to covering the Pennsylvania state government. As Bureau Chief, he also traveled the country gathering news from remote locations in numerous cities across the U.S. In the 1980's, Mr. Murtha owned a television production company that specialized in broadcast news, documentary programs and political campaigns.
These experiences have given Jim the expertise and insight needed to develop, plan and implement grassroots/media campaigns for a growing list of clients. Jim's field experiences range from small, focused, community-based grassroots efforts to large multi-state campaigns for Fortune 10 Corporations. Jim also has years of experience in building and working with coalitions whose mission is to interact with elected officials and the media. He is also well versed in the development and application of new technologies via the Web and Blogosphere to an emerging world of new communication capabilities. He understands the relationship between the layered effect of government professionals and elected officials and the resistance to change these layers can present. In 2003, Jim became the managing partner of the National Field Resource Network (NFRN). The NFRN is a consortium of grassroots and public affairs issue managers. The Network is designed to handle the most difficult public affairs issues through it's roster of experienced and seasoned field operatives. The combination of his communication skills as a journalist and the issue management capabilities of a lobbyist and the firm's national network of field operatives have made Jim Murtha one of the premier grassroots campaign managers in America.
Jim is a graduate of Penn State University with a degree in Journalism. He lives in Newtown, PA with his wife Lisa, who is a partner in the law firm Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal LLP, and their two children, Alexander and Haley.
