Seattle Mayor Ed Murray Drops Reelection Bid Amid Sex Abuse Lawsuit

SEATTLE, WA - Seattle Mayor Ed Murray announced Tuesday morning that he will not run for reelection in 2017. Murray was sued last month by a former child prostitute who claims Murray sexually abused him in 1986. Since the suit came to light, many people have speculated whether Murray could stay in the race, although the mayor had previously insisted that he would.

"The allegations against me paint me in the worst possible historic portraits of a gay man; the allegations against me are not true, and I say this with all honesty and the deepest sincerity," Murray said Tuesday, highlighting that remaining in the race would distract from other issues facing the city.

Although he is dropping out of the mayoral primary race - which now includes state Sen. Bob Hasegawa, activist Nikkita Oliver, former Mayor Mike McGinn, and urban policy activist Cary Moon - Murray says he will finish his current term. Murray made the announcement Tuesday morning at the Alki Beach Bathhouse in West Seattle.

Murray picked Alki to make the highly emotional announcement, he said, because it's where he grew up.

"It tears me to pieces to step away," Murray said.

Murray was first elected in 2013 after he defeated McGinn, who was the incumbent. Over his term, Murray worked to enact the city's $15 minimum wage law, and on a housing affordability and livability agenda, which would bring about 6,000 new "affordable" housing units to Seattle by the middle of the next decade. Prior to being mayor, Murray served in the state Legislature representing West Seattle.

The sex abuse lawsuit was filed in early April by a man named Delvonn Heckard. Heckard claims that Murray paid him for sex in 1986 when he was underage; the suit also alleges Murray raped Heckard. Murray has vehemently denied the accusations. In the suit, Heckard makes specific claims about the appearance of the mayor's body and genitals, and Murray has gone so far as to release medical records to disprove those claims.

Heckard is one of four men to accuse Murray of sex abuse. On May 3, Maurice L. Jones, filed a document in the suit against Murray claiming that the mayor also paid him for sex. Jones is incarcerated in the King County Jail in Kent on drug charges, but says that Heckard introduced him to Murray in the 1980s.

Meanwhile, Seattle voters have been receiving phone calls from pollsters over the last week probing about how the lawsuit affects their view of the mayor. It's unclear who is behind the polling - either Murray or an opponent - but the questions appear to be gauging the mayor's vulnerability. One of the poll questions, according to reports, asked whether Murray should stay in the race.

In recent days, multiple news outlets have reported that Murray would drop out of the race. The Seattle Times and The Stranger have called for Murray to leave the race.

McGinn went one step further and asked Murray to resign immediately.

Moon issued a statement on Murray's announcement shortly after it ended. She welcomed Murray's exit saying that him staying in the race might be harmful to sex abuse survivors.

"I believe it's in the best interests of everyone - especially the many survivors of sexual assault re-experiencing their own traumas - for the Mayor to step down now so that City Hall can get back to work," she said. "An aggressive legal fight, where Mayor Murray feels compelled to use all the power of his position as a public official to demean and even silence his accusers, is deeply divisive to our community and triggering for survivors of sexual assault."

Watch Murray's full press conference here:

Murray ended the brief press conference on a wistful note with a quote from another Irish politician.

"It has been the absolutely, absolutely been the opportunity of a lifetime," Murray said of his time as mayor and in the Legislature. "As Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, to be Irish is to know that in the end the world will break your heart. We thought we had a little more time."

Image via City of Seattle