What does Gary Rosen’s departure from the mayoral race mean for the remaining three candidates?
Supporters of each immediately went into spin mode last week, trying to demonstrate why it helped their favored horse. The problem is, no one knows exactly where a “typical” Rosen supporter will fall, or how many he really would have had for mayor.
Last election, despite being the top vote getter, he finished way out of the running in mayoral voting. Some feel his outside-the-insiders political persona will leave more voters to Konnie Lukes; she seemed to have the most crossover with Rosen voters in the last mayoral campaign. Others say the 20% who voted for Rosen rather than Lukes last time will split between Joe O’Brien and Kate Toomey; others claim that the majority of those will go to Toomey.
The politicians themselves brushed off any hint of direct impact.
“There are people who are big into number crunching and analyzing. In the end people will vote on who they feel will do the best job. It will be whoever resonates with voters and who they are comfortable with,” said Toomey.
Echoed Lukes, “It’s too early to tell right now. It’s always one of those ongoing issues that will eventually play itself out.”
And O’Brien: ““I don’t want to even speculate on that. I think there is plenty of time to speculate how this race will turn out in the months to come.”
