UPDATE: No.
Today at 11 am, Mayor Ed Murray will make an announcement “to share his decision about a write-in mayoral candidacy.” What does that mean? Who knows!
In May, Murray dropped his bid for re-election after multiple allegations that he sexually abused teenagers in the 1980s. (He denies those allegations.) Then, the lawsuit making abuse allegations against him was dropped. And last week, Murray said he wasn’t ruling out a write-in campaign and planned to poll voters about it.
Yesterday, the mayor said that polling showed “a path forward.” Today, KING 5’s Natalie Brand, who tends to call Murray news correctly, reported that she has a source saying the mayor is not running. But then, Murray’s personal spokesperson Jeff Reading sent reporters an email with the subject line: “Media advisory – Major announcement coming to shake up the race for Seattle mayor.”
For fuck’s sake.
Several things are possible here: KING 5’s source is wrong, Murray’s announcement to “shake up” the race is an endorsement of another candidate (probably definitely Jenny Durkan), or Murray’s people are simply trolling us.
Murray endorsing Durkan would not, of course, “shake up” this race. It would be exactly what everyone is expecting. Murray endorsing another candidate, like Jessyn Ferrell: mildly interesting. Murray endorsing Nikkita Oliver? Now we’re talking, Ed.
Anyway, we’ll find out at 11.
