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Seattle mayoral candidate Ed Murray is vowing to push for a $15-an-hour minimum wage if elected, but says the effort would proceed cautiously.

During a news conference at his Capitol Hill campaign headquarters, Murray said the $15 wage should be phased in — starting with ensuring city employees and contractors are paid at least that amount. Next, Murray said, he’d target “fast-food brands and big-box retail” stores. Small businesses would be exempt.

Murray’s proposal leaves plenty of details to be worked out later, including the timeline and size of businesses that would be affected.

“This is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. It’s something we need to approach thoughtfully,” Murray said.

Politically, Murray’s wage pledge serves as a rebuttal to Mayor Mike McGinn, who has sought to portray himself the true progressive and Murray as a tool of the downtown business interests. Murray said his business supporters would not be “jumping for joy” at his minimum-wage proposal.

McGinn has championed the cause of low-wage workers, backing the city’s paid sick leave ordinance and moving to block a planned Whole Foods in West Seattle over wage complaints raised by the grocery workers union. But McGinn has stopped short of endorsing a $15-an-hour minimum wage for Seattle, saying the wage should be set at the state level.

In a statement released by his campaign today, McGinn pivoted on that stance somewhat. “I support increasing the minimum wage — federal, state local, whatever it takes to get it done,” he said.

McGinn then swiped at Murray’s plan as mostly talk. “If you take a close look at Sen. Murray’s proposal, all he’s actually proposing to do is to convene people to talk more about ‘moving toward’ a higher minimum wage,” McGinn said. “Talk is cheap. Taking action is a lot harder.”

However, McGinn’s statement did not give any indication he’d introduce a minimum wage ordinance himself.

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Before the August primary, a political-action committee called People for Ed Murray raised more than $125,000 to support the longtime state senator’s bid for Seattle mayor.

The PAC stuck largely to positive messaging about Murray, sending mailers boasting of his progressive bona fides and “proven track record of results.”

But in prepping for the general election, the PAC is retooling for what is likely to be a more negative campaign directly criticizing Mayor Mike McGinn.

On Thursday, a new PAC called “People For A New Seattle Mayor” was registered with the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission. That group listed the same political consultant and treasurer as People for Ed Murray.

Dean Nielsen, the political consultant for both PACs, said the older PAC is essentially going inactive, with the new group taking up the cause.

“There is a new committee for a new election and we’re going to be looking at all sorts of messaging opportunities,” Nielsen said.

Translation: the gloves will be off — as you might expect for a general election bout between two candidates who have increasingly shown their disdain for one another.

No contributions have yet been reported to the new PAC, and it’s not clear that all the donors to People for Ed Murray will be on board for the new group. The previous group had been backed largely by business interests, including $52,500 in donations from the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce’s PAC.

The Seattle Police Officers’ Guild (SPOG) announced Thursday it is endorsing state Sen. Ed Murray for mayor, snubbing Mayor Mike McGinn, who appeared to represent the interests of the rank and file when he fought the Department of Justice over the extent of police reform.

Guild President Sgt. Rich O’Neill said in a written statement: “Many view Seattle government as broken and dysfunctional. SPOG believes that in order to work on all the problems facing the city we need Ed Murray and his ability to unite all of the different groups for the common good.”

The union cited Murray’s legislative experience and expertise on civil rights, transportation, budgetary problems and public safety. It noted that Murray received the 2013 Legislator of the Year Award from the Council of Metropolitan Police and Sheriffs and the same award in 2009 from the Washington State Council of Police & Sheriffs for his work supporting public safety.

O’Neill said that Murray assured the guild he would make public safety his No.1 priority. “We need a Mayor that will stay focused on public safety!” O’Neill said in the statement.

Murray strategist Sandeep Kaushik said the campaign “appreciates the guild’s support. They were looking for leadership in the mayor’s office.”

McGinn campaign manager John Wyble said McGinn tried to strike a balance in the negotiations with the Department of Justice over sweeping reforms in the department, the cost to the city and the concerns of the city’s minority communities over the use of force and bias.

“Reform is happening. The mayor fundamentally believes in police reform. Maybe the Guild was saying, ‘Let’s take a chance with somebody else,’ ” Wyble said.

U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell on Thursday sought a commitment from the Obama administration’s nominee to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that she would make ocean acidification a significant priority.

But the exchange briefly turned, albeit obliquely, to an issue at the heart of the debate about the U.S. response to ocean acidification: funding.

In response to a Seattle Times’ series examining the current and projected effects of changing sea chemistry in the Pacific Ocean, Cantwell asked Kathryn Sullivan, acting chief at NOAA, how the agency would respond to acidification’s growing threat to marine resources.

Follow the discussion here at 2:37.

“As you know very well, Senator, ocean acidification is one of the creeping threats of global change and the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,” Sullivan said during her confirmation hearing Thursday. “It’s a very difficult problem. It’s going to be a very difficult problem to monitor and provide foresight about to coastal communities.”

Sullivan said the agency had “made some progress” by adding warning systems to alert coastal communities and shellfish growers about incoming corrosive water or harmful algal blooms caused in part by rising carbon-dioxide emissions. Those systems already have helped the Northwest oyster industry — the first business in the world to feel the effects of acidification –  avoid pumping sour water into hatcheries when young oysters are at their most vulnerable stages of development.

But “it’s a large-scale, truly global problem, as you know,” Sullivan added, “systemic in affecting the Earth’s systems but it’s also patchy and has very patchy local consequences. We will certainly continue to work forward with you, if I am confirmed, to make sure that we can put in the right sort of observing, forecasting and monitoring systems to help us be as alert and aware and provide as much foresight as possible on this condition.”

The exchange turned slightly more adversarial, however, when Cantwell sought more definitive answers.

“So you will develop sensors in critical areas,” Cantwell asked. “You will continue to do research? You will continue to deploy adaptive breeding programs, recommend management?”

Sullivan said, “Within the resources available to us, Senator, we will certainly do that. All of those are components of our current ocean acidification program as you know.”

Cantwell, in response, said, “OK. Within resources. That’s an interesting way of phrasing it.”

“I guess I would say we had to come up with the resources to get that initial program that you said pays dividends,” Cantwell continued. “And without it I think three or four or five generations of shellfish growers would have been wiped out. And we grow something like 25 percent of the shellfish in one bay in our state. So this is a very serious issue. So I hope that we cannot predicate it based on resources but on the urgency for this industry and for the resources to have this information.”

When scientists first tentatively linked the deaths of billions of oysters to changing sea chemistry back in 2009, Cantwell was one of the early backers of efforts supporting more research and monitoring, particularly for the hard-hit industry.

But the Seattle Times’ series, “Sea Change: The Pacific’s Perilous Turn,” showed that ocean acidification, caused by CO2 emissions, is happening faster than scientists initially predicted and poses a significant threat to marine resources, particularly commercial shellfish and fishing in the Northwest and Alaska. And it revealed that federal government spending on acidification research and monitoring across a half-dozen different agencies, including NOAA, is roughly $30 million a year — less than scientists have told Congress they need, and less, even, than the federal government has spent in some years just studying sea lions in Alaska.

See the stories here: www.seattletimes.com/seachange

Washington’s 1st Congressional District is supposed to be swing-voter territory, but so far it looks as though Democratic Rep. Suzan DelBene has little reason to fear a major Republican challenge in 2014.

While Republicans are well on their way to targeting vulnerable Democratic incumbents in other parts of the country, the GOP has no obvious prospects in the 1st District. A few names tossed around by local GOP leaders have not panned out. And national political analysts are starting to write the race off.

The influential “Sabato’s Crystal Ball” at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics plans to list DelBene’s seat as “safe Democratic” in its new rankings of 2014 House contests to be released Thursday. It had previously listed the race as “leans Democratic.”

“The bottom line is that Republicans have many more attractive targets across the country,” Kyle Kondik, managing editor of the Crystal Ball, said in an email, noting that DelBene is an “intimidating” target for the GOP because of the former Microsoft executive’s vast personal wealth.

The district, which stretches from Redmond and Kirkland north across more rural territory to the Canadian border, showed mixed loyalties in 2012. It went for Rob McKenna with 52 percent support in the governor’s race but backed President Obama with 54 percent of the vote.

Susan Hutchison, newly elected chairman of the state Republican Party, said “we think it’s a Republican district” and vowed the GOP will find a viable candidate.

“We’re going to mount a serious challenge, I can tell you that,” she said. “There are some exciting people who are talking about it.”

But Hutchison declined to name any of the party’s prospects and those mentioned by other GOP leaders as possible candidates have not stepped forward.

GOP officials have met with Pedro Celis, a retired Microsoft engineer who co-chaired the Mitt Romney campaign’s steering committee in the state in 2008. But in an interview, Celis said he’s not inclined to run. State Sen. Andy Hill has also been mentioned, but officials said they don’t believe he’s ready to make the leap yet. (Hill didn’t return phone calls.)

Snohomish County Councilman John Koster, who lost to DelBene last year, said he’s not planning another try. After his 2012 loss, Koster blamed national Republican leaders for essentially ceding the district to Democrats by failing to back him with campaign cash. (State and national Republican leaders disagreed, blaming the Koster campaign.) Koster said he’s worried the GOP is going to skip the district again.

“I still believe it is very much a swing district,” Koster said. But if a challenge is going to emerge, “you’ve got to do it soon.”

Former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, who helped draw the new 1st District boundaries during redistricting in 2011, said 2014 is shaping up to be a good year for Republicans generally. But he acknowledged the difficulty in finding a viable candidate to challenge DelBene.

“That person will either have to have money of his or her own, or there will have to be an extraordinary fundraising effort and third-party intervention,” Gorton said, referring to outside GOP allied groups that pour money into competitive congressional races nationally.

Kondik said there is still time for Republicans to field a candidate. “However, many of the competitive House races across the country have already begun to take shape. If no one emerges in the next couple months in WA-1, it could end up being a pretty sleepy race.”

Updated at 6:05 p.m. with comment from McGinn spokesman Aaron Pickus

Jean Godden today became the fifth Seattle city councilmember to endorse state Sen. Ed Murray for mayor, giving Murray the support of a majority of the nine-member council.

During a news conference at Murray’s Capitol Hill campaign office, Godden said Murray would “restore trust and cooperation between the council and the mayor.” Godden said McGinn had not reached out to her for a one-on-one meeting in more than two years. That’s a contrast to previous Mayor Greg Nickels, with whom Godden said she had regularly scheduled quarterly meetings.

But McGinn’s office disputed Godden’s account, saying the mayor had met personally with her last fall and offered to schedule more meetings if she wanted. “We have a good relationship with her office and have always accommodated requests for information,” spokesman Aaron Pickus said in an email, adding that the McGinn has offered regular meetings to every council member.

Murray argued he’d ensure a more collaborative relationship with the council.

“There is always going to be a tension between the executive and legislative branch — there will be if I am mayor as well. But it doesn’t have to be the way it is today. I can leave one floor and go down and sit in councilmembers’ offices and just chat with them,” Murray said.

Godden said she believes Murray will seriously tackle a reported gender pay gap in city employment. “I am assured he will recruit and promote quality women to positions of authority,” she said.

While individual endorsements don’t mean a lot, there is a symbolic heft to Murray’s campaign being endorsed by a majority of the council. It could give weight to Murray’s argument that he’d be more effective at advancing his agenda than McGinn.

In addition to Godden, Murray has been endorsed by Councilmembers Bruce Harrell, Tim Burgess, Sally Clark and Tom Rasmussen. McGinn has been endorsed by Councilmember Mike O’Brien.

John Wyble, political consultant for the McGinn campaign, dismissed the Murray endorsements. “It’s no surprise that the business-supported city council members support the business-supported candidate for mayor,” he said.

McGinn “has tried to bring a lot of new voices to the table,” Wyble added. “People who like the old way of doing business aren’t very excited about that.”

Bellevue City Council candidate Lynne Robinson is putting daylight between herself and Steve Kasner, saying she believes in keeping the council nonpartisan.

Kasner, who is running for another council seat, said in a surreptitiously videotaped comment to a Democratic gathering last month that he wants to be part of a Democratic “tsunami” on the Eastside.

Robinson said Wednesday that comment “does not reflect my ideology about the council position that I’m seeking. I’m very proud to have support from people all over Bellevue and all political views, and I think we all understand that the council is a nonpartisan role.”

Robinson, a member and past chair of the Bellevue Parks and Community Services Board, said she has “always been a bipartisan person” and didn’t know the political affiliations of City Council members before this election.

Kasner drew criticism from his opponent, Councilmember Kevin Wallace, for his comments to the 41st District Democrats last month that if he and Robinson are elected, the council will have a Democratic majority for the first time. “We have the opportunity to turn the purple Eastside absolutely blue,” Kasner, chair of the East Bellevue Community Council, told the gathering.

Kasner and Robinson are both endorsed by King County Democrats.

Robinson’s opponent, Vandana Slatter, an Overlake Hospital Foundation trustee who unsuccessfully sought the county Democratic endorsement, branded Robinson before the primary as “an insider who plays politics in partisan organizations.”

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn and state Sen. Ed Murray engaged in a mostly low-key debate Tuesday sponsored by social services organizations at the Garfield Community Center.

Both mayoral rivals boasted of their records of seeking to direct more money to services for the homeless and poor. They only indirectly criticized each other — McGinn pointing to the state Legislature cutting services for the mentally ill and Murray saying he’d collaborate better with elected leaders to build support for new revenue.

It was only the end of the debate that produced fireworks, as Murray appeared to become irritated by McGinn’s latest attempt to portray him as the bought-and-paid-for candidate of the downtown business establishment.

In his one-minute closing statement, McGinn jabbed at Murray’s frequent claim he’d be a more unifying leader as Seattle mayor.

McGinn said Murray has united corporate donors like “Coke, Pepsi, Vulcan, Comcast…”

Murray, standing behind McGinn, interrupted: “And labor unions, Planned Parenthood.”

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Bellevue City Council candidate Steve Kasner, a Democrat, told a recent Democratic Party gathering he wants to be part of a “tsunami” that sweeps out a Republican majority on the officially nonpartisan council and helps turn the Eastside “absolutely blue.”

Kasner’s opponent, incumbent Kevin Wallace, has seized upon the recorded remarks as proof that Kasner is excessively partisan.  Wallace, a Republican, has landed some important Democratic endorsements.

A portion of Kasner’s remarks to a well-attended Aug. 21 meeting of the 41st District Democrats, has been posted on You Tube by “Bob Smith.”

“I am only part of the tsunami that is going to rain down on those who do not have Democratic values,” Kasner declares in the two-minute video. “We have the opportunity to turn the purple Eastside absolutely blue.”

If he and another Democrat, Lynne Robinson, are elected, Kasner continues, “for the first time in the history of the city of Bellevue, it will be a Democratic majority.” Robinson is running for an open seat against Vandana Slatter, who unsuccessfully sought the King County Democrats’ endorsement that Robinson won.

Kasner also says in the video he was pleased that “none of the Neanderthals” on the council was on the way to re-election without an opponent.

Wallace said of Kasner’s remarks, “I think the voters in Bellevue don’t want partisanship on the City Council. . . . What they want is decisions that make their community more viable, and a fiscally responsible council. That’s what they have now.”

Kasner, chair of the East Bellevue Community Council, offered an apology for some of his language, including the word Neanderthals. ”I apologize for some of the word choices I used in a partisan environment,” he said, ”but the sentiment — fighting an incumbent from the perspective of where he and his supporters come from — is not something that I apologize for.”

The first television ads have aired in the battle over a statewide initiative that would mandate the labeling of genetically engineered foods.

Opponents and supporters of Initiative 522 rolled out TV spots Monday morning in campaigns that are expected to cost millions of dollars.

The Yes on 522 campaign has raised $3.4 million with the largest donation from Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps. Opponents have raised $12.1 million with large checks from Monsanto and DuPoint Pioneer.

The initiative before voters November would require food and seeds produced entirely or partly through genetic engineering and sold in Washington state to be labeled as such.

Supporters say consumers have the right to know what’s in the food they are buying. Opponents say the measure provides misinformation and is going to increase grocery costs.