edmurray
State Sen. Ed Murray.

Ed Murray doesn’t understand why his opponent in Tuesday’s mayoral election is accusing him of being “Comcast’s candidate.”

A report by the Washington Post published Thursday suggested that Comcast, along with other Internet providers, was contributing to Murray’s campaign in hopes of putting a stop to Gigabit Squared’s planned high-speed fiber network.

Incumbent Mayor Mike McGinn then sent an email to supporters Friday morning with this subject line: “Washington Post exposes Murray as Comcast’s candidate.”

In an interview with GeekWire Friday afternoon, Murray told us that he’s flabbergasted both with the Post article — “they speculated and never interviewed me,” he says — and McGinn’s messages.

“It’s interesting this didn’t come up in the past ten-and-a-half months I’ve been running for mayor,” he said.

Murray said that he’s publicly supported the city’s attempt to have Gigabit provide high-speed broadband for several months and plans on honoring the agreement if elected.

Asked why Comcast, AT&T and CenturyLink have all contributed to his campaign, Murray recommended that people look at his 18-year record in the Washington legislature and his support from 22 labor unions in this election, among other achievements he listed off.

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn.
Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn.

“It’s pretty clear that I have a lot of integrity,” he said. “To infer that I am some kind of hack for Comcast I just think doesn’t bear out the facts.”

Murray also said that McGinn, who awarded a Pioneer Square broadband project to Comcast back in 2011, is “trying to ignore his own record.” He’s referring to McGinn’s promise back in 2009 to bring high-speed Internet for all of Seattle, which hasn’t happened yet.

“This is a mayor who said something and never produced in the last four years,” Murray said. “It’s great to say the really cool thing; it’s very different to bring results.”

Murray said he’s fully supportive of both bringing high-speed Internet to Seattle and also competition in the marketplace, “because that’s the only way we’ll spur people on to provide more service and cheaper service.”

“If people don’t believe my words, there’s not much I can do about it,” Murray said. 

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