On September 12, 2017, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray releases a written statement announcing he will resign his office effective at 5 p.m. the following day. His exit comes on the heels of a bombshell report in The Seattle Times in which a younger cousin of Murray's accuses Murray of molesting him in the 1970s. The cousin is the fifth man to allege sexual abuse by Murray years earlier, when the men were teenagers. "While the allegations against me are not true," Murray, the city's first openly gay mayor, says in his statement, "it is important that my personal issues do not affect the ability of our city government to conduct the public's business" ("Seattle Mayor Ed Murray Resigns ...").
A Career in Politics
Ed Murray was a rising star in state politics long before he became mayor of Seattle. Born in Aberdeen in 1955, he grew up in West Seattle, went to high school in Lacey, and graduated from the University of Portland. He came out in 1980, and by 1988 was working as an assistant to state senator Cal Anderson (1948-1995), the first openly gay member of the Washington State Legislature. Murray later worked for Martha Choe, a Seattle city councilmember. After Anderson died of AIDS in 1995, Murray was appointed to a vacant seat in the state house of representatives, and served in that role for a decade. In 2006, he won a seat in the state senate.
In 2012 Murray "sponsored marriage equality legislation that he nimbly maneuvered through the stodgy senate, picking up four Republican votes along the way. The liberal house easily passed the legislation a week later. But, as had been predicted all along, social conservatives backed by the DC-based anti-gay marriage group National Organization for Marriage collected signatures to force a voter referendum. Come Election Day, however, gay marriage was approved 53 to 46 percent" (Feit). Within a few days, senate Democrats had pegged Murray as their new caucus leader, and on December 5, 2012, Murray announced he would explore a run for mayor of Seattle.
In a glowing profile in Seattle Met magazine's January 2013 issue, Josh Feit wrote of Murray: "Despite his advocacy for gay rights, Murray is more of stereotypical kitchen-table Democrat than a culture warrior; more Bruce Springsteen Democrat than Lady Gaga Democrat. He grew up on Alki and in Lacey in a working-class family; his father worked in the steel yards and as a logger ... His grandparents were first-generation Irish immigrants, and his Irish Catholic family was politicized by the Kennedy election in 1960. Murray was five when Kennedy was elected, but became forever after a card-carrying member of the Democratic Party" (Feit).
In the mayoral election on November 5, 2013, Murray ousted incumbent Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, winning 52 percent of the vote to McGinn's 47 percent. "Murray ran on a platform of a more collaborative governing style, in contrast to McGinn's well-publicized disagreements with city and state leaders over his objections to plans for replacing the Alaskan Way viaduct with a tunnel. Murray cited his 18 years as a state [legislator] as beneficial experience in working across the aisle" (Kershner). As mayor, Murray "continued to champion social justice issues ... winning the mayor's seat in part with a promise to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, which he accomplished with an executive order not long after his election. He took on affordable-housing challenges and police accountability and would become one of President Trump's harshest critics on the West Coast, particularly the administration's promise to target undocumented immigrants" (deGrandpre).
Abuse Allegations
Murray's political life began to unravel in April 2017 when Kent resident Delvonn Heckard filed a sexual-abuse lawsuit against him. The mayor, Heckard claimed, had paid him for sex in the 1980s when Heckard was 15 and Murray was living on Capitol Hill. Heckard eventually dropped his suit, but then filed another one, seeking millions of dollars, after Murray resigned in September. When Heckard's suit was revealed in The Seattle Times on April 6, the newspaper wrote that two other men had come forward with abuse allegations. Jeff Simpson, who had been counseled by Murray at the Parry Center for Children in the 1980s and later became Murray's foster child, said Murray groomed him and then raped him throughout his teens, from ages 13 to 16. Simpson attempted unsuccessfully to sue Murray in 2007. Lloyd Anderson, who grew up in the same Portland children’s home with Simpson, alleged that Murray paid him for sex. Later, Maurice Jones, who met Murray through Heckard, said he too was victimized by Murray.
Murray denied the allegations but couldn't run from growing public outrage. In May he withdrew from his re-election campaign, but continued to insist that he was being unfairly targeted. More revelations followed. In July 2017, the Times published notes from an Oregon Child Protective Services investigation concluding that Murray had sexually abused Simpson. Finally, on September 12, the Times published a story in which Joseph Dyer, Murray's cousin's son, said Murray had molested him over the course of a year in the 1970s. Murray released his resignation statement a few hours later.
"It was a stunning end to a monthslong drama," wrote the Times, "that has seen five men step forward to accuse Murray of sexually abusing them years ago, when they were teenagers. Since the allegations began to emerge in April, Murray has continued to say he is innocent. Though he ended his re-election campaign in May, Murray until Tuesday had insisted he would not resign, despite calls for his exit. 'The accumulation of these accusations and now coming from a family member just made it essential that he resign,' said City Councilmember Tim Burgess" ("Seattle Mayor Ed Murray Resigns ...").
After
City council president Bruce Harrell served as the acting mayor for the first five days after Murray's exit, but Harrell declined to fill the role through the November 2017 election. On September 18, the city council chose Burgess as interim mayor; he served until November 28, when the results of the mayoral election were certified and Jenny Durkan, who had easily defeated Cary Moon in the mayor's race, was sworn in to complete the final weeks of Murray's term.
In December 2017, the City of Seattle paid $150,000 to settle the lawsuit brought by Heckard, and in November 2018 the city settled with Simpson, who had accused the city and Murray of using Murray's public office to slander Simpson. Simpson, who sought $1 million in damages, received $75,000. Heckard, the first victim to come forward, died of a drug overdose less than three months after receiving his judgment. Meanwhile, Murray disappeared from public life. He continues to maintain his innocence.
