When Tim Burgess first ran for city council four years ago, I wrote a post at the Stranger calling him out for his PR work on behalf of Concerned Women for America, the far-right anti-choice, anti-gay group founded by Beverly LaHaye, wife of apocalyptic novelist Tim LaHaye:

By allowing his firm to help them produce media and ad campaigns in the critical year of 2004, Burgess profited from the promotion of a radical right-wing agenda that, if implemented, would cause immediate and profound harm to gays, lesbians, young people, and women—even if he did, as he told me, eventually recuse himself from working for them personally.

Additionally, Burgess famously wrote an op/ed for the Seattle Times back in 2005 asserting that Christians (Burgess is Presbyterian) "don’t like abortion” and “value the sacredness of marriage between a woman and a man.”

Burgess is also widely seen as a conservative because of his sponsorship of a controversial panhandling ordinance that would have cracked down on aggressive panhandlers; that proposal was subsequently vetoed successfully by Mayor Mike McGinn.

Since then, Burgess has moved steadily to the left---most recently taking up the Norm Stamper pro-pot mantle, arguing this afternoon that the state of Washington should legalize, regulate, and tax marijuana.

But pot isn't the only lefty issue Burgess has championed in recent months.

In February, Burgess, along with three other council members, advocated 11 specific police-accountability reforms, including testing officers for steroids after any use of force.

Earlier that same month, Burgess argued that SPD officer Ian Birk, who shot and killed John T. Williams, an alcoholic, homeless Native American woodcarver, should be fired---arguably an unusual position for a former cop to take (he also said he "welcomed" a federal investigation into the department's use-of-force practices.

Burgess also strongly questioned a decision by Human Services Department director Dannette Smith, a Mayor Mike McGinn appointee, to eliminate the department division dedicated to preventing domestic violence and sexual assault, noting that "these are primarily women who are victims of domestic violence, and if we are not standing with them they’re even at greater risk."

Burgess has also been a vocal advocate against human trafficking and slavery---specifically of young girls who are involved in prostitution, but also against so-called wage theft, the practice of hiring someone and refusing to pay them or withholding a portion of their wages.

Burgess, along with Mike O'Brien, was among the most vocal council advocates for changing the way the city determines on-street parking rates, which resulted in rates in some areas increasing to as high as $4 an hour. Supporters have taken flack for the change, which downtown and Pioneer Square businesses argue that higher parking rates are bad for business.

Taking the bleeding-heart pro-tax position, Burgess said he strongly supports doubling the size of the city's Families and Education Levy, saying "the needs of our kids" demand spending more money on services to support the work of Seattle public schools.

And last year, Burgess made a point of loudly coming out against the death penalty, writing on his blog that although "I admit that I've seen cases over the years where I quietly thought that I'd want to be the executioner... our society's inability to justly administer the ultimate exercise of state power" makes him oppose the ultimate punishment.

Burgess has argued all along that he's as lefty as they come, particularly on social issues. Far be it from me to play soothsayer, but it looks to me like Burgess is making an all-out charm offensive to refurbish his lefty image for a potential run against the liberal's liberal, Mayor Mike McGinn, in 2013.