Conservative Republicans were pushing their Defense of Marriage Act, which Murray called the "anti-same-sex marriage bill" because it excluded gays from the right to marry. The hot rhetoric over that issue produced what Murray considered personal attacks. And, as the only openly gay legislator, Murray was often on point and in the news.
"It was very painful at the time," Murray recalls. "How many other legislators have sat here and watched their rights being voted away?"
Fast forward to today: Murray, a Seattle liberal in his eighth legislative session, is one of the most powerful lawmakers as chairman of the House Transportation Committee.
Even before getting the chairmanship, he played a role in breaking last year's political logjam that eventually put Referendum 51 on the ballot. A year ago, Murray also was able to get a school anti-bullying bill passed into law, after watching it die several years in a row while Democrats and Republicans shared power in the House.
Before that, as co-chairman of the House Capital Budget Committee, Murray helped broker a construction budget that passed unanimously in 1999. Murray said he's proud of the unanimous vote, because it "was the first for that" and because it doubled money going into the low-income housing trust fund.
"From our side of the aisle, I've heard people say Ed is someone they can work with. That's primarily in the fiscal area," said Rep. Gary Alexander, R-Thurston County, who was co-chairman of the Capital Budget Committee one year with Murray, but tangled with him in 2002 when Murray was chairman.
Eventually, Murray went around Alexander to pick off a few Republican votes needed to meet the capital budget's supermajority requirement.
"He did it in a way that was, at least, courteous," Alexander recalls. "He prevailed."
Murray, who no longer is the lone gay member of the Legislature, always has been a political junkie -- long before he led gay advocacy groups like the Privacy Fund in the early 1990s. Some of his earliest memories include his parents' excitement over President John F. Kennedy, who was Irish and Catholic like his family. And he remembers how his mother, a native New Yorker, followed politics "like it was sports."
Though he was born in Aberdeen and spent many formative years in West Seattle, Murray spent his teen years in South Sound, attending Timberline High School in Lacey. His family moved here when his dad went to work for Lands Commissioner Bert Cole.
"We lived in Lacey. I was student body president in my senior year. I delivered The Daily Olympian (as it was known then) in junior high," Murray said.
Murray's path to the Legislature had some crooks and turns as he spent a year in a seminary then moved to Portland, attended the University of Portland and later worked in a public defender's office. Eventually, he got a management job with a major Seattle law firm and, after leadership roles with several gay and lesbian organizations, dabbled with the idea of getting a master's degree in public administration. Instead, he wound up as a state representative.
The spotlight is about to swing back onto Murray this year in his new transportation role.
With voters soundly defeating Ref. 51 last November, lawmakers are under pressure to produce some kind of funding package that avoids a return trip to voters. The Legislature has tried to produce a major transportation package every year since 1998, but has failed every time.
"If anybody can, it's Ed," said House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam. "I watched his negotiations in transportation and was absolutely impressed with his ability."
He has been firm dealing with Republicans, who've been less willing to raise taxes for transportation, yet "willing to give when necessary to keep things going," Kessler said.
"We've always been able to talk about differences and find a way to resolve them," said Sen. Jim Horn, R-Mercer Island, the new chairman of the Senate Highways and Transportation Committee who brings a more road-oriented approach to transportation issues than Murray.
"I'm pleasantly surprised at how easy he is to work with. He definitely has his ideas, but he's more gracious in how he gets it across," said Horn's predecessor on the committee, Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island. "I don't think he's what anybody thought he'd be. He's not 'all transit,' 'all King County.' He's looking at transportation from a statewide perspective."
Haugen is most happy she's not hearing a slogan used by some House Democrats a couple years ago: "The Republicans are the opposition, but the Senate is the enemy."
A pragmatist, Murray said he's trying to build pressure to get a transportation package passed soon -- before lawmakers get too deep into the operating budget, which could scare them off a tax increase for transportation.
Both Horn and Murray have been holding off proposing a specific tax increase: Both say they first want to answer the message of distrust sent when voters defeated Ref. 51. They want to pass bills that authorize more audits and accountability for transportation spending, as well as increasing efficiency of dollars spent.
Despite their amicable start, Horn said it's still unclear how well Murray will bring his caucus along to any agreements in the Senate and House.
"As members are looking at all the social services programs that we're cutting, they ask, 'Why are we talking taxes for roads when we're cutting programs for children?' It means this year we've got to move it early," Murray said. "I want a package on the governor's desk by the end of the month -- of March. That is an unlikely scenario, but the further we slide toward the end of session, the harder it will get."
- Party: Democrat
- Age: 47
- Residence: Seattle
- Occupation: State representative from the 43rd Legislative District in Seattle, which takes in the University District and ranges from Capitol Hill to Fremont, since October 1995 appointment. He previously led the Privacy Fund, a pro-gay and lesbian group; served as legislative assistant to then-Seattle City Councilwoman Martha Choe in the 1990s; and managed the late Sen. Cal Anderson's 1988 campaign.
- Other background: Member of Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce and St. Patrick's Parish; board member of Seattle Police Foundation.
- Education: Bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of Portland; attended one year at St. Thomas Seminary.
- Family: Lives in Seattle with his partner, Michael Shiosaki.
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