So it’s over for Rocco Rossi, a few days later than most political observers had expected.
Liberals within his camp and without had been putting pressure on Rossi to bow out a couple of weeks ago as it became clearer his Tory-lite campaign was failing to gain traction with voters on the right gravitating to Rob Ford, and those closer to the centre backing George Smitherman.
The final straw came last night. Rossi’s somewhat unlikely run for mayor ended officially in the hours after an Ipsos-Reid poll commissioned by CFRB found him way backing the pack – again – at four per cent of decided voters.
Only hours earlier, it looked like Rossi was prepared to stay in this thing until the bitter end.
His campaign had released a statement after the poll was released around 4 pm stating he was disappointed with the results but noting the large number of undecided voters and the fact that a number of other polls were scheduled for this week. The situation was termed “fluid.”
Only it’s clear that not everyone on his team was willing to continue fighting for a lost cause.
In reality Rossi’s campaign has been in desperate shape since the post Labour Day bump he got (very short lived) for proposing a tunnel to nowhere and following that with a wild stab at name recognition with Mafioso-inspired print and radio ads. None of it worked.
Rossi tried to persevere, even as prominent members of his campaign were jumping ship and the letters urging him to drop out to stop Ford from prominent supporters like Peter C. Newman were being leaked to the media.
But the subtle signs his bid had lost its sense of direction were there. He hasn’t been himself at all-candidates debates. The media had stopped taking notice. All of a sudden no one was talking up Rossi any more. The only buzz was the manufactured kind coming from the Rossi camp itself via the forced statements proclaiming another great week or addition to his team.
I mean, when prominent members of your campaign are scraping the bottom of the barrel, dredging up of all those well-known Ford sins from years ago on YouTube this late in the campaign, something’s definitely amiss on the purpose front.
Many observers, and a few on his campaign team, continue to be flummoxed about why an obviously articulate and intelligent candidate like Rossi could fail to make any impression on voters.
No big mystery, really.
For all his nice-guy enthusiasm, Rossi also comes across as too packaged, a little too slick even for municipal voters.
Try as he might to cultivate the political outsider label, truth is he’s not an outsider at all. In some books, he’s something worse than the career politicians he’s taken great pains to distant himself from in this race – he’s a career backroom boy.
What’s ahead for Rossi? Perhaps a shot at a provincial seat. Maybe a federal run. Both have been suggested. No doubt it will be for the Libs.
But Rossi’s reluctance to get out of this race sooner and endorse Smitherman, despite the strong urging from higher ups in the party, may sour some Grits on him. That’s a story for another day. For Rossi, it’s ciao for now.
