Monday, October 11, 2010

Rossi Urged (yet again) to get Out of the Race

But he just doesn't get it does he. Congrats Rock, you really are Barbara Hall reincarnate.

Rossi:

“It is clear there is a campaign underway to scare Torontonians into voting for George Smitherman,” he said in an email. “I hear people say that they are being told to ‘hold your nose and vote for George’ in the hopes that a strategic voting tactic will stop the chaos that a Ford administration would surely bring to the city.


Yes Rocco, almost all of us get it. You don't. Your axe to grind with George is becoming nauseating.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This guy was running the Liberal party... he was a dolt then as he is now...

The Pundits' Guide said...

Can I ask a completely sincere question as a non-Torontonian, James?

If Mr. Rossi did as Messrs. Newman and Heard are asking, and dropped out, what if anything is known about where his current supporters would actually go?

I realize the assumption behind the kind of request being made of him is that, were he to drop out, his supporters would seamlessly move over to support Mr. Smitherman, but logically that's not the only alternative is it? Some might support Mr. Ford instead, or others just stay home.

Is there some data that rates the probability of each of those three outcomes? I haven't seen anything like that from a distance, but perhaps being closer to the GTA you're more familiar with the situation.

I remember in the last federal election, there were a few accidental experiments in so-called "strategic voting", whether through candidate oopsies or deliberate strategies of one party or another not to run a candidate in a given riding. The Conservatives, for example, decided not to oppose Independent conservative André Arthur in Portneuf-Jacques Cartier, believing it would help him win the seat. But by the time the ballots were counted, much of their support had actually switched to the Bloc, who very nearly snatched the seat away from Arthur.

Anyway, I'll be interested to hear any reports about the expected splits.