He's the IT Guy Taking On the Most Corrupt County in America

What if the fix for a broken county government isn't another Republican... isn't another Democrat... isn't another machine politician at all?

What if it's an IT guy?

That's the bet Michael Murphy is making. He's a systems administrator from Chicago's Austin neighborhood, and he's running for Cook County Board President - the second-largest county in the entire United States - as a Libertarian.

No corporate PACs. No consultants. No machine behind him.

Just a guy who looked at a broken system and thought... yeah, this thing needs a reboot.

So I sat him down on The Brian Nichols Show to figure out if that's naive optimism or an actual blueprint. And honestly? By the end, I wasn't so sure it was naive.

Let me walk you through it.

Who Is Michael Murphy?

Michael's not a career politician. That's kind of the whole point.

He's originally from the Metro Detroit area. Now he lives in Austin, one of Chicago's West Side neighborhoods. By trade, he's a systems administrator - the guy who keeps IT infrastructure from falling apart when everyone else is panicking.

And here's the part I found interesting... he's been all over the map politically.

Republican at one point. Democrat at another. Now? Libertarian.

That's not flakiness. That's a guy who actually tried the options and came out the other side convinced the whole two-party setup is the problem itself.

His words: the unit party keeps reelecting the same people over and over and over again. And without competition... without a different voice in the room to hold them accountable... nothing ever changes.

Sound familiar? It should. Because it's the same thing I say about sales all the time. Your biggest competition usually isn't your competition. It's the status quo. It's indecision.

Michael's just applying that exact logic to a county government.

Why Is There No Two-Party System in Cook County?

Here's a stat that stopped me cold.

In Cook County, there is no Team Red. For most races, your only choice is Democrat. That's it.

Michael pulled the actual numbers from the Board of Elections. Two county positions ran completely unopposed in the primary. Two more are cruising into the general election with no real competition whatsoever.

They're basically guaranteed their seats before a single vote gets counted.

So when people tell Michael a third party can't win... he flips it. The problem isn't that a third party can't win. The problem is nobody's even on the ballot to give voters a choice in the first place.

That's why one of his first moves - if he's elected - is to use his political capital down in Springfield to lower the barriers for more parties and independents to get on the ballot.

His take? Two parties is terrible. He'd rather have ten to pick from than two. Or in Cook County's case... just the one.

What Would Michael Do About Cook County Property Taxes?

Every campaign has what I call the blinking red light. The one issue screaming for attention above all the rest.

For Cook County, it's property taxes. And they are brutal.

Michael told me some neighborhoods - specifically Black and Latino neighborhoods - have watched their property taxes double. Some triple.

And here's the kicker. Property tax in Cook County isn't objective. It's subjective. It's based on whatever the government bodies decide they need to collect that year.

Because nobody ever tells the government there's not enough money. They'll always find a way.

So what's his fix?

A hard cap. 1% of the property value at the time of purchase - for residential, commercial, and industrial. After that, no increase beyond 2% or the rate of inflation, whichever is less.

Translation? It forces local government to actually budget. You know what you're paying. They know what they're collecting. And they can't just reassess their way into your wallet every three years.

Now here's where he got sharp. Because I threw him the renter objection.

"Michael, half your voters rent. They don't care about property taxes."

His answer? Yes they do - they just don't know it yet.

Because when a landlord's property tax jumps 15%... where do you think that cost goes? Right into the rent. Renters are paying property taxes. They're just paying them through their lease.

Bingo.

Can Communities Really Do What Government Does?

This is the part that separates Michael from your average tax-cutting libertarian.

He's not just trying to slash and burn everything. His whole philosophy is about pushing power down to the community level.

Real example he gave me. His own church took in migrants coming up from the border - gave them a place to stay instead of having them sleep at police stations.

His argument? Churches and community organizations are better equipped to handle that stuff than the county is. They specialize. Government has to be a jack of all trades... and a master of none.

So instead of the county trying to run everything itself, Michael wants the county to act as oversight - funding and supporting the local organizations that are actually good at the specific problem. Homelessness. Addiction. Whatever it is.

But I pushed him. Because this is where libertarian theory smacks into messy reality.

At what point does the carrot stop working... and you need the stick?

And credit to Michael - he didn't dodge it. He said you lead with the carrot. Get people into treatment, into housing, connect them with a church. But if that doesn't work? Yeah, sometimes you need the stick. Forcible removal. A legal eviction process with real teeth behind it.

He said it plainly. Libertarians love limited government. But you also have to give police the ability to do their job and keep the community safe.

Not over-surveillance. Not militarization. Just... the teeth to actually function.

The Seattle Drug Mistake Every City Should Learn From

This was my favorite exchange of the whole episode. Because it's exactly the kind of nuance most politicians can't handle.

Libertarians say: your body, your choice. Want to do drugs? As long as you're not hurting anyone else... go for it.

Michael agrees with the principle. But then he put a twist on it that a lot of his own tribe won't like.

He pointed to Seattle. They decriminalized all drugs. And drug use went through the roof. Dealing out in the open. Total mess.

So decriminalization all by itself? Failed.

But then he pointed to the European model. Some cities decriminalize - but you have to use in designated safe locations. Think of it like a bar, but for drugs. It's controlled. It's not laced with fentanyl. And it keeps the wide-open public drug use off the streets.

There's apparently a spot in Europe that does exactly this... with a police station sitting right underneath it.

The lesson? The principle was right. The execution in Seattle was wrong. And the difference between those two things is everything.

That's the kind of thinking I want to see more of. Values as your north star... but real-world execution in the messy middle where actual people live.

How Do You Beat a 16-Year Political Machine?

Let's be real about the mountain here.

The current Cook County Board President has held the seat for 16 years. She's going for term number five. And in 16 years... you build a lot of relationships. A lot of alliances. A whole lot of bureaucracy that's loyal to you.

So how does an IT guy with no money take that on?

Michael's answer is pure systems-administrator brain. And I loved it.

Day one, he's not walking in with a grand pre-baked framework. Because he's never been in county government - so how would he even know what actually needs fixing yet?

Instead, he starts with a clean table. He goes to each city and township. He sits down with all 17 county commissioners. And he asks the analytical questions.

What's working? What's not? Why is it working? Why isn't it? Then build from there.

It's basically the NIST cybersecurity framework applied to government. Assess the system. Find the vulnerabilities. Attack them one digestible piece at a time.

And on the bureaucracy that's going to fight him tooth and nail? He was honest. He knows he'll get steamrolled on some things. But his play is radical transparency. Put it all on the table. Let people see exactly who's blocking what and why.

Because when the public can see the mountain you're climbing... they're a whole lot more willing to demand change right alongside you.

What Zohran Mamdani Taught Us About Winning Local Elections

Now here's where I get to nerd out on my own thing for a second.

A couple years back I wrote an ebook called How to Win Your Local Election. And one of the biggest lessons in the whole thing? Fun. The warm and fuzzies. Getting people to actually feel something.

You want a live example? Look at Zohran Mamdani in New York.

Now - let me be crystal clear - his policies? Communism. No bueno. Hard pass from me.

But respect the game, folks.

The guy came out of left field - pun fully intended - and dismantled the Cuomo machine. And if you know anything about New York politics, you know how absolutely massive that machine is.

How'd he do it? He resonated with the average voter. He met people where they're at, on the one issue they actually cared about - affordability. That became his entire campaign.

You don't have to like his prescriptions to learn from his execution. And that's exactly what I want Michael to steal.

Because here's the uncomfortable truth about voters. Most of them check out. My old 80/20 rule - maybe 20% are actually paying attention. The other 80% vote on emotion, on whatever hot-button issue scared them or angered them that week.

Michael gets it. He's already doing the work - showing up at churches in his neighborhood, at food pantries, at community drives. Being the candidate who actually shows up and shakes the hand.

That's how you break a machine. Not with a bigger ad budget. With presence.

My Take on Michael Murphy

Here's where I land.

Do I think he's got an uphill battle? Absolutely. Independent Libertarian, no money, running against a 16-year incumbent in one of the most machine-controlled counties in America.

But do I think his logic is sound? Yeah. I actually do.

He's not selling utopia. He's selling a clean-table, community-first, debug-the-system approach to a government that's been running the same broken code for over a decade.

And whether you live in Cook County or you're a Hoosier like me watching from just across the border... this matters.

Because Michael said something at the end that stuck with me. You don't need everybody. You just need 20% of the people who are actually paying attention.

So if you're one of those people... go give his campaign a look.

Because the only way anything ever changes... is if enough people decide they want it to.

And somebody's finally trying to break the unit party.

Watch or listen to the full episode of The Brian Nichols Show with Michael Murphy on YouTube, Rumble, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

Learn more about Michael's campaign at go-murphy.com.

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