1. U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy died last night. He was 77.

2. Potential write-in candidate for Seattle Mayor, State Sen. Ed Murray—who says most of the encouragement he's getting to run is coming from "young people and gays and not insiders"— says he will decide whether or not to run within the next week. However, asked point blank by PubliCola if he wants to be mayor, he said in a hushed voice: "I would love to be mayor," listing issues like schools, affordable housing, transportation, and in specific, mitigation for the neighborhoods around 520, as his top priorities.

Murray said there were three things he needed to get a handle on before making a decision to run: 1) The practical issues of pulling off a write-in campaign, a complicated and technically clunky pursuit that, for example, requires everyone to spell his damn name—Edward B. M-u-r-r-A-y—exactly right for the vote to count ... something he said he could challenge and "win on in court"; 2) Whether or not there is a bona fide "movement" he could translate into the money and the organization required to win; and 3) How it would go over with his longtime partner, Michael Shiosaki.

Murray said the polling—which was done by EMC Research—would not be a factor because he says he already knows he has "very good" favorables. "Unless the polling is a disaster, this isn't a factor," he said.

Asked what he thought about the two candidates who knocked out Mayor Greg Nickels and made it through last week's primary—T-Mobile Executive Joe Mallahan and neighborhood and envionmental activist Mike McGinn—Murray, who endorsed Nickels (and who sponsored the tunnel legislation in Olympia this year,) said, "I'm seeing these two guys bash government and taxes. I think govenment is part of the answer, not the problem."

3. However, successful write-in mayoral campaigns have been few and far between —and most have involved unusual circumstances, such as incumbents running for third terms, candidates who forget to officially file for office, or campaigns in tiny cities. For example, in 2005, James Maher became mayor of Baxter Estates, New York as a write-in candidate with 29 votes; the incumbent mayor, whose name was the only one on the ballot, did not campaign. In San Francisco, well-known board of supervisors president Tom Ammiano came in second as a write-in candidate in 1999, forcing a runoff and winning the election (with his name on the ballot). Murray may be popular in his district, but it's unclear that he's well-known outside it.



4. US Rep. Adam Smith (above; photo by Johnathon Fitzpatrick) spoke for two hours last night at a mostly civil health care town hall at the Harry Lang Stadium in Lakewood, where the event was moved because of larger-than-expected attendance. About 2,000 people attended; full story later today.

5. Mayoral candidate Joe Mallahan has already raked in a whopping $11,595 since last Tuesday's primary election, including $2,350 from employees of T-Mobile, where Mallahan is a vice president. T-Mobile employees have contributed more than $51,000 to Mallahan's campaign so far. Nearly half of that money comes from contributors who live within Seattle. As we reported previously , the vast majority of Mallahan's campaign contributions have been coming from outside city limits; the new contributions bring that proportion down a little, to 60 percent (once Mallahan's $200,000-plus contribution to his own campaign is taken out).

6. Over at Slog, Jen Graves has a great series of scoops about a Seattle artist and Seattle Art Museum security guard who was fired for attempting to excavate the original board and nails from Yoko Ono's piece Painting to Hammer a Nail , which has been covered up by months of visitors nailing scraps of paper to it. I can't do the story justice; just go read it.

Today’s Morning Fizz brought to you by Re-elect Richard Conlin. CLICK HERE TO DONATE .