While voting to re-elect Barack Obama, please help keep Republicans from taking control of the Senate, Patty Murray asked delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

Murray, Washington's senior senator who also leads the organization dedicated to electing Democrats to that chamber, got an early evening speaking slot to boost Obama, knock GOP nominee Mitt Romney and make a pitch for a Democratic Congress.

She reiterated the Democrats line of the night, that Obama believes in "an economy that's built from the middle out, not from the top down." That Republican proposals could turn Medicare into a voucher system, repeal health care reforms and take away abortion rights.

"To them, every problem is a nail and the onlly hammer they have is cutting taxes for millionaires and billionaires," she said. "With a Republican Congress riding shotgun, Mitt Romney will put the middle class on the roof and take our country on a long ride."   

'About an hour after her speech, the Republican National Committee issued a statement that Democrats were resorting to “false attacks to distract from their abysmal record” that includes high debt and employment above 8 percent for 42 months. “Nothing the Democrats can say will change the fact that voters know they are not better off after four years of failed policies and leadership,” Ted Kwong, a GOP spokesman, said.

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