[1] Murdoch unsuccessfully contested the Marsden electorate in the 1919 election as an independent Liberal against the incumbent from the Reform Party, Francis Mander.

[6] In 1943, Murdoch, now standing for the National Party, defeated Barclay and won the electorate back, and held it until he was deselected ahead of the 1954 election.

[6] In early 1954, the 77-year-old Murdoch was challenged for the National nomination by William Rodney Lewin Vallance, the deputy mayor of Whangarei.

Vallance won a postal ballot of members, an outcome which split the Marsden National Party into two feuding factions.

After it emerged that Vallance was in trouble with his taxes he was in turn deselected and replaced by Don McKay, the chairman of the Marsden electorate committee.