Murray reiterated his denial of the allegations that first emerged last month when a man filed a lawsuit claiming Murray paid him for sex in the 1980s. "It hurts my family", he said, according to CBS Seattle affiliate KIRO.
They "paint me in the worst possible historic portraits of a gay man", he said.
And so Murray is retiring rather than risk being defeated in August (as Greg Nickels and Paul Schell were) or in November (as Mike McGinn was - by him).
Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, right, follows his husband Michael Shiosaki to an event where Murray read a statement saying that he is dropping his re-election bid for a second term Tuesday, May 9, 2017, in Seattle. "The scandal surrounding them hurts me and this city".
Murray said the mayor's race should be focused on city issues, including the homeless crisis, affordable housing, and development, not the child sex abuse allegations.
For those reasons, Murray, flanked by dozens of supporters, announced he was withdrawing from the campaign.
The 62-year-old Murray is a Democrat and was elected in 2013.
"For him to sit there and lie, (it) just really let me know that this man should not be in the position he's in", Heckard said in the video.
Murray's decision comes a month after he was accused in a civil lawsuit of sexually abusing teenage boys in the 1980s.
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He took no questions from reporters, and later tweeted: "Serving you as mayor of the city I love has been the honor of a lifetime".
All in all, it does serve as a nice distraction from a recent lawsuit from a man who claimed Murray "raped and molested him" over several years, beginning in 1986 when the man was a 15-year-old high school dropout.
Following the filing of the lawsuit by the man, now 46, prompted other men to come forward and make similar allegations.
"It can also be given to the state treasury or to a political party, but most of what we see is refunds to contributors and donations to charities", Executive Director Wayne Barnett explained.
Former U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan is also rumored to be strongly considering a run. (They joined Nikkita Oliver, who took on Murray before this news.) With Murray out, the race is even more wide-open.
Murray proposed a soda tax on sugary beverages, with the windfall going to help "support various programs aimed at reducing disparities between white students and black and Latino students", The Seattle Times reported.
He served as campaign manager for Cal Anderson, a Seattle state senator who was the Legislature's first openly gay member.
During the course of the scandal, the Seattle Times felt it had some explaining to do about, as its headline said, "Why we are publishing the allegations against Mayor Ed Murray, but didn't in 2008".
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