1. Both mayoral candidates, incumbent Mayor Mike McGinn and challenger state Sen. Ed Murray (D-43, Capitol Hill), got busted on style points this weekend: McGinn for his smirk and Murray for not blinking.

At a Seattle Neighborhood Coalition breakfast forum where the pair made their appeals to the group's concerns about new development and the changing character of Seattle's neighborhoods, one audience member called McGinn's habit "annoying."

Lynn Thompson from the Seattle Times reported:

At one point, a member of the audience asked McGinn to stop rolling his eyes and smiling sarcastically while Murray was speaking. “Please stop doing that. It’s annoying” said Eileen McCann from Ballard.

McGinn apologized from the front table and again to her personally after the forum ended.

Later in the day, at the KOMO TV's Saturday night debate, Murray was ridiculed (on twitter) for his own creepy, robotic habit.

(Charla Neuman is local political consultant and was mayoral candidate Joe Mallahan's spokeswoman in 2009.)

2. A KING 5 poll released this morning shows that Murray still has a big lead over McGinn—52-32, with 15 percent undecided. (King 5's previous poll, last month, showed Murray leading 52-30, with 18 percent undecided.)

The Washington Conservation Voters, which has endorsed Murray, released a Public Policy Polling poll last week that showed Murray leading 52-28.

The new poll was conducted after the first TV debate, KING 5's Wednesday night debate, which most observers (including Erica) scored for McGinn.

And KING 5 notes:

Whether either candidate won the debate apparently had little bearing on the results. Only 26 percent of those polled said they watched last Wednesday’s debate.

3. As for Saturday night's mayoral debate; this time Erica called in to say she thought Murray won.

Keep in mind, though, at Saturday night's debate, Murray played up an issue that appeals specifically to Barnett's politics—gender inequities at the city. 

Seattle Times reporter Jim Brunner writes:

When it was Murray’s turn to ask a question, he sought to wound McGinn’s standing among female voters, citing a report on a gender pay gap at the city which showed McGinn’s office was among those departments where women are paid less than men. Murray also questioned McGinn’s closure of the city’s domestic violence office and said only 30 percent of McGinn’s cabinet members are women.

“Why should the women of this city believe, based on the fact that only 30 percent of your cabinet are women, based on the pay disparity, based on the numbers of domestic violence, that your next four years will offer something different to them?” Murray asked.

McGinn countered that three of the five top staffers who report directly to him are women and said he’d hired female city department heads as often as men.

As for any pay disparities, McGinn chalked that up to women “working in categories of jobs not valued as highly” and noted he’s launched a city effort to rectify any unfair pay gaps.

McGinn then turned the question around, saying only one third of the legislative aides hired by Murray during his 18 years in the Legislature were women.

Murray responded that as Senate Democratic leader he got to hire four people and three were women. He added that he’d hired racial and sexual minorities during his years in the Legislature, saying his office has been “one of the most diverse.”