Isn't It Weird That ... 

State Sen. Ed Murray is widely seen as the establishment/business candidate for Seattle mayor (as we reported yesterday, for example, the independent expenditure PAC set up to support him is partly funded by the Washington Restaurant Association, the conservative, anti-minimum wage restaurant lobby group; and the Seattle Chamber of Commerce has also endorsed him), despite the fact the he gets consistently low ratings from major business groups?

The Association of Washington Business, a conservative business lobbying group that ranks legislators based on their "pro-business" voting records, has never ranked Murray higher than 50 percent, and usually their ranking has been much lower. In 2007, the AWB gave Murray a ranking of 27 percent; in 2008, 23 percent; in 2009, 50 percent; and in 2010, 30 percent.

Among the bills Murray cosponsored that the AWB considers "job killers" was legislation implementing the state's unfunded family and medical leave act (which the WRA also opposed). 

And on the other side of the looking glass:

Isn't It Weird That ... 

Murray also has the backing of at least one major environmental group (the Washington Conservation Voters, which praised Murray for fighting greenhouse gas emissions, securing funds to restore Puget Sound, and "stepp[ing] up to lead on difficult and controversial issues important to pro-environment voters"), despite the fact that, since 2000, he's taken more than $5,000 in contributions from Big Oil, including Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP, Washington Oil Marketers, and Texaco.

ConocoPhillips and BP are among the big oil refineries that are currently fighting with the state over whether greenhouse gas emissions should be regulated under the state clean air act.