Seattle City Council president Sally Clark and City Council member Tom Rasmussen endorsed state Sen. Ed Murray (D-43, Capitol Hill) for mayor today, joining City Council member Tim Burgess (a failed mayoral candidate himself), who formally endorsed Murray several weeks ago.

"Stay tuned," Murray smiled after Rasmussen called the trend (council members formally coming out for the opponent of a sitting mayor) "extraordinary."

Murray's campaign wouldn't say if they had lined up any other council endorsements; beloved populist City Council member Nick Licata, who supported his longtime colleague Peter Steinbrueck in the primary, has said he's staying on the sidelines—and green liberal Council Member Mike O'Brien is backing his Sierra Club days ally, incumbent McGinn.

"Stay tuned," Murray smiled after Rasmussen called the trend (council members formally coming out for the opponent of a sitting mayor) "extraordinary."

The prize get now would be Council Member Bruce Harrell, who ran an energetic and focused, but ultimately disappointing primary campaign for mayor himself. Harrell, who is half African American and half Japanese, ran on an earnest social justice platform and did well in Southeast Seattle. If Murray won Harrell's endorsement (Harrell recently belittled the mayor's anti-gun decal program and demonized McGinn during his own primary run) it could help Murray diminish McGinn's strength in Southeast Seattle.

Rasmussen's Murray endorsement wasn't surprising. Rasmussen has been openly condenmning McGinn ever since McGinn's anti-tunnel crusade.

The dual endorsement was announced as Murray unveiled (with a few exceptions) a generic white paper, outlining his human services agenda ("Goal: Reestablish Seattle's leadership in human services"). Rasmussen chanelled his anti-McGinn rap on human services issues, saying the Human Services department has been "in turmoil" during McGinn's term, noting that there have been four different directors in McGinn's single term and that "experienced staff has left in droves." (Patricia McInturff, the HSD director under former Mayor Greg Nickels, was at the announcement today.)

Rasmussen said while it's normal for council members to have disagreements with mayors—"I had disagreements with Nickels"—McGinn has taken it to a new level. He said McGinn is "not proactive" and "waits for a crisis" before acting. "He finally added $400,000 to public safety after a bus driver was shot," Rasmussen said, "even though council members have been urging him to do something for a long time."

Clark's endorsement wasn't surprising either. (Last week, Fizz reported that Clark had joined Murray in a Rainier Valley parade and that her formal Murray endorsement was on the way.) However, Clark's official Murray endorsement is ultimately newsworthy—a stoic, even-keeled Council Member, Clark is popular with her colleagues and the public—and she brings a measure of objective smarts to a city hall divide that has gotten so politically toxic, it's hard to take anyone at face value about anything.

Clark said that while it's tricky for Council Members to endorse—"we can just sit back because we need to work with whoever wins,"—but reasoned that it was "definitely worth it to endorse Murray" because "the city needs a practical program to get things done, not just a mayor with a bully pulpit, and during the past three years it's been very hard to do that." 

As for the human services agenda, Clark cited a 60 percent spike in domestic violence (and in my opinion, the most substantive aspect of Murray's human services rollout today) the "dismantling" of the Office for Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Prevention as a major blunder of the McGinn era.

Clark and Rasmussen are the only gay members on the City Council (Murray would be the first gay mayor.) Clark cited Murray's yeoman's lift on gay marraige as a an example of his pragmatic ability to get things done.

In other Murray endorsement news, the executive board of the 36th District Democrats (Ballard, Fremont, Greenwood, Queen Anne) recommended a sole Murray endorsement last night. It takes a two-thirds vote of the board to make a recommendation to its members. The board recommended a Murray/Burgess endorsement in the primary, but that failed with membership—it takes a simple majority—and the 36th didn't endorse. Members with take up the Murray recommendation at their next meeting on September 18.