1. Seattle City Council member Sally Clark will endorse state Sen. Ed Murray (D-43, Capitol Hill) for mayor this week in his challenge against incumbent Mayor Mike McGinn, Clark confirmed to Fizz Saturday. 

Clark, holding a Murray sign, marched in Murray's contingent at the Rainier Valley Heritage Parade on Saturday morning. 

Clark's colleague, City Council member Tim Burgess, who was initially in the crowd of candidates running against McGinn (before dropping out in May), is actively supporting Murray already—as is City Attorney Pete Holmes, who's running (unopposed) for his own second term. Holmes was also marching in the Murray contingent on Saturday. Mayor Mike McGinn was not at the parade.

2. On Saturday morning, Murray himself pounced on Friday's news that, in an effort to conceal a $100,000 contribution to a signature effort in Sacramento to stop the NBA's Kings deal there, San Francisco hedge fund manager Chris Hansen, who unsuccessfully tried to move the Kings to Seattle, had ignored contribution reporting rules.

Murray, who said he supports bringing the NBA back to Seattle, said: "I was disappointed to hear the news that Chris Hansen was behind the deceptive contribution to arena opponents in Sacramento. We have high standards of transparency and accountability here in Seattle, and this action fell short of those standards."

Hansen worked closely with McGinn on a deal for an NBA arena in SoDo that came with  a $200 million public loan, to be paid back through future taxes on arena operations. The Hansen-backed group was protesting the Sacramento deal because it included a $258 million public subsidy.

State Rep. Gael Tarleton (D-36, Ballard), a former Port Commissioner who opposed Hansen's SoDo  proposal because of the Port's concerns about traffic, also pounced, writing on Twitter:

“You can’t honestly be surprised? Money is how Hansen fights. Some use fists, some use words, he uses money.”

“Chris Hansen in No-Man’s Land. Fighting half of Seattle to build an arena, fighting City of Sacramento to prevent arena.”

Gary Winuk, head of California's Fair Political Practices Commission, also lambasted Hansen, whose contribution wasn't reported by the July deadline (the state sued last week). "This, to us, is a glaring example of an at best negligent, and at worst purposeful deceptive behavior that was aimed at depriving the Sacramento public with knowledge it's entitled to about who is funding campaigns," Winuk said.

3. City council member Richard Conlin, who's seeking a fifth four-year term in office, sent an urgent email to supporters on Friday, after winning just 49 percent in his latest reelection bid to socialist Kshama Sawant, who won 33 percent.

The plea for funding, signed by Conlin's campaign director Sheila Stickel, began, "Our opponents are already starting the spin-- and now is the time when we have to step up.With your help, we've made it through the primary election in a strong position -- but with the general election fast approaching, and a long campaign still ahead, we need to ramp up our efforts, and get our message out.

"I've just looked at the numbers, and in order to do that -- we need to hit our fundraising goal this month to stay on track to victory." 

The email went on to ask for contributions of $10 or more to reach the campaign's goal of $25,000 by the end of August. 

So far, Conlin has raised $154,297 to Sawant's $21,329.