Seattle mayor denies congressional Reddit rumor

SEATTLE - The power of social media.

On Friday, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray's office issued a denial to an anonymous post on Reddit.

The Reddit post, by a user called "MurrayDataDumper," read:

"Obvious throwaway for privacy. US Congressman Jim McDermott is retiring after this term and will be endorsing Mayor Ed Murray to run as his replacement in the 7th. Murray will stay on as Mayor until at least after election day in November 2016. At that point, if he wins, he will resign as Mayor the next day.

Whomever is the sitting City Council President as of November 2016 becomes Mayor then for the remainder of Murray's current mayoral term, which runs through 2017's election, and whichever City Councilmember moves up to the 7th floor of City Hall will be replaced as an appointee by the remaining eight members of the City Council ASAP.

McDermott has been in his office nearly 30 years and his final goal that he wanted to achieve was Obamacare, and to defend it against challengers. He wants Murray to succeed him. Fair winds in your future, Jim."

It was sent around on other forms of social media. The next thing the mayor's office knew, it felt the need to respond.

Murray's spokesman Viet Shelton, via email, wrote: "Well, the President IS visiting Seattle today to campaign for a Murray running in 2016….just kidding. The Mayor believes that one Murray representing Seattle in DC is enough. So basically, there is no truth to this Reddit rumor.

Also, as an aside, the Mayor did joke that he'd only consider it if the R's would nominate him as speaker."

McDermott also reacted via a campaign Twitter account, denying the rumor.

"I'm not retiring anytime soon, we still have work to do-- especially on issues like student loan debt. -jim"