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It’s over. Adam Giambrone pulled the plug on his bid to become mayor on Wednesday (February 10), caught up in a “scandal.” At least that’s what some in the press are calling it.
Turns out that salacious front-pager Tuesday (February 9) about young Giambrone allegedly getting a leg over on his City Hall office couch, having what he admits was an “inappropriate relationship” with one Kristen Lucas, was only the half of it.
There were other women. Who cares? The bigger problem is that Giambrone showed himself unable to tame the yelping dogs in the press pack out for blood when the first whiff of scandal hit the papers.
“This searing experience has taught me, I hope permanently, that a public career of integrity cannot survive deceit in your private life,” Giambrone told the assembled media.
Where were his advisers?
It shouldn’t matter one iota, of course, who Giambrone’s allegedly diddling, except for the fact that his lapse in judgment has embarrassed his live-in partner, Sarah McQuarrie.
But he compounded his difficulties by not coming clean from the outset.
It made his campaign look bush-league and unprofessional. Can anyone imagine a serious candidate for mayor leaving himself so open?
The big question: did Giambrone’s handlers fumble the ball? Or did Giambrone go rogue on them, too, not telling them there were other skeletons in the closet?
After all, he had some of the smartest people in the biz behind him: John Laschinger, Robin Sears and Patrick Gossage.
Within hours of the Lucas bombshell Tuesday, some in the business of spin were already saying it was hard to see how Giambrone could carry on, given the questions the affair had raised about his ability to think straight.
But the political calculus had been made by the Giambrone team: we’re okay as long as there weren’t more kiss-and-tells. A day is a lifetime in politics, the saying goes. And election day is more than nine months away. Giambrone’s handlers were banking on voters forgetting the entire affair. Besides, too many important people had hitched their wagon to Giambrone’s star.
The textbook way to handle situations like this is to get the aggrieved partner, in this case McQuarrie, onside. Political operatives say sometimes a marriage counsellor is called in to help the political couple in question reach the understanding they need to face the cameras.
If the partner sticks around, a very public matter all of a sudden becomes private. See Bill Clinton. See John Edwards before his most recent screw-up. “We’re working it out. I’ve forgiven Adam. So should you.” End of story.
Only there was no media conference with McQuarrie, no public fence-mending to restore the moral order.
Maybe that would have put an end to the talk of sex, and Giambrone could have lived to fight on.
Instead, his political enemies had a field day, making noises about the TTC head using taxpayer-funded premises for sex. The integrity commissioner had also been asked to look into Lucas’s claim that Giambrone revealed that TTC fares were going up before that info was official. Nothing would probably have come of that, since it was already in the public domain that ticket prices were rising, but it was another nail in the cross for those who wanted to see Giambrone’s mayoral aspirations crucified.
On Wednesday (February 10) it got worse. A producer for one of CFRB’s affiliates went public to say he’d been on a date with Giambrone a couple of years ago, and Giambrone allegedly told him he was bi. I repeat: who cares? None of this would have mattered if Giambrone had laid his cards on the table on day one.
The public might have been ready to forgive if it weren’t for all the equivocating. We expect pols to get caught with their cigars in the nookie jar. Shouldn’t matter as long as they’re competent administrators. Mel Lastman, some will remember, fathered two children out of wedlock and abandoned them, they say.
Rob Ford, another councillor contemplating a run for mayor (one conservative blogger says he’s in for sure), has had his own messy private affairs splashed across front pages. Remember that domestic assault thingy involving his wife a while back?
George Smitherman, the front-runner in the mayoral stakes, can tell some stories about his pills-and-powders days. And has to the press.
Even the usually half-cocked Giorgio Mammoliti was preaching restraint: “It’s his personal life, and I’d rather not be debating each of our personal lives,” he told the Sun Tuesday before more shit hit the fan.
Gotta think that more than a few politicians watching the Giambrone story unfold are thinking to themselves, “There but for the grace of God go I.”
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This may be semi true for previous scandal embroiled leaders like Bill Clinton who actually knew how to operate in public office. Giambrone heads up one of the worst public transportation institutions in the western world. He has proven that he cant do the job. So let's do ourself a favour and forget casting the shadow of a doubt. Giambrone was the wrong man for the job to begin with. He didn't have a chance with a squeaky clean record and finally has shown his true colours as the womanizing incompetent that he is.
Good Riddance.
I look more forward to your comments then Enzo's nonsensical COMMIE ramblings.
Giambrone, McQuarrie, Lucas, it doesn't matter...They truly fucked around using my taxpayer money. Giambrone needs to be fired or maybe get a job here at NOW editing the escort ads.
Adam Giambrone was the NOW endorsed candidate for mayor's office and even the newspaper that makes its money from whoremongering is shitting on its own doorstep by now looking failure in the eye and the face that looks back is the transit hero that these creepy writers wanted.
NOW IS GARBAGE>GARBAGE IS NOW
He's the facebookiest young politician around and all that $$$ is helping him learn how to access the DELETE ACCOUNT page on a social networking site. Guess he'll be on Ashley Madison in the next few lookin' to hook up.
Be nice if someone at NOW gave a fuck about the city. Noboudy should be porking in office. It sets a double standars about what we allow some people to get away with.
NOW, your 3 for 3 now batting out of the deck for Giambrone post-scandal.
I haven't seen spinning like this since the centrifuge scene in 'Moonraker.'
"On Wednesday (February 10) it got worse. A producer for one of CFRB's affiliates went public to say he'd been on a date with Giambrone a couple of years ago, and Giambrone allegedly told him he was bi. I repeat: who cares?"
Well, I seem to remember a certain unnamed writer from this very magazine a few weeks before Mr. Giambrone announced his intention to run who was excited at the prospect that the TTC chair might run for mayor, and said that one of the reasons that Torontonians would vote for him was because he was gay. Apparently it mattered to that unnamed writer so much that he "outed" somebody who had to deny that he was gay afterwards.
Dumbarse.
If I have sex in my office, it will be caught on CCTV camera, and I will get fired. So, Adam get off the couch, resign as the Chair of the TTC and shift gears. As the flashes from the press cameras fade to black, take a couple of years and drive the 29 Dufferin Bus to get a new perspective on ward 18, a real sense of what the TTC is about, what it needs, and what is important to Torontonians. Through a humble approach you will win back the hearts of Torontonians, not by steadfastly tightening your grip on your position as Chair of the TTC.
It's not the "sex scandal" that matters per se. Sure, it was extremely poor judgement on Giambrone's part, a year before a municipal election (in which he might consider running for the mayor's chair), to be having dalliances outside of his 5-year relationship with his live-in partner. But what that really shows is that he was willing to deceive someone he presumably loved and cared about. Someone who lies to his partner could easily do the same to those he doesn't have close ties to: i.e. the public he represents.
Giambrone went before the media and lied about the extent of the "affair", then had to retract his statement, confessing to further affairs. And he hasn't come forward and cleared the air regarding the allegations that he had sexual relations in his City Hall office and that he disclosed privileged information prior to the recent TTC fare hike (which could have had an effect on revenues for the TTC by inviting token hoarding by those in possession of that knowledge). Until he's come forward and stated unequivocally that he did not partake in either of those activities, there's a huge stain on him (not to mention the serious Code of Conduct violations those unresolved matters invite).
So, Giambrone holds a press conference in which he apologizes to those he hurt (though I don't recall him apologizing to his constituents or the people of Toronto), but bolts from the room before announcing he's dropping out of the mayoral race. Even if he did only receive the first page of his two-page speech, you'd think he could have shown some leadership qualities by "thinking on his feet" and mentioning his intention to withdraw from the mayoral race. Sheer incompetence on his part and on the part of his "expert" handlers (who must surely rue the day they hopped on his YouTube bandwagon).
The TTC has suffered under his watch. Relations between the TTC and the public it serves are at an all-time low. In an attempt to address the counterfeiting of tokens, "new-style" tokens are introduced, which don't address the ongoing problem of token hoarding every time there's a looming fare hike. So, instead of introducing an entirely new system (a convenient Smart Card, etc.) that addresses both the counterfeiting issue AND the hoarding issue (and prevents lost revenue for the TTC), the TTC just opts for a new token, thus only addressing half of the problem. And at what cost to taxpayers were those new tokens? And how about the cost to print those "temporary tickets" when the TTC suspended token sales in December? As someone who doesn't own a car and who uses unstaffed automatic-turnstile subway entrances on a regular basis, those temporary paper tickets I was forced to buy for the month of December sure weren't very convenient for me. Great move, TTC: stop selling tokens and sell only tickets, thereby eliminating convenient access to almost half of all subway entrances! Now that's what I call "customer service".
And in the middle of the TTC's worst-ever customer-service crisis, Giambrone skips off to France, leaving things to fester here at home. And he claims to be focused on TTC matters? Shame!
He has no credibility. He's lost the public's trust.
Mr. Miller, it's time for you to do the right thing. Show some character and integrity yourself and replace Giambrone as Chair of the TTC. Immediately. Unless you want the above to be YOUR legacy.
P.S. The Giambrone jokes I'm hearing from TTC drivers are painful, eg. Did you know that TTC stands for 'Take The Couch'?
Too young, Too inexperienced...He never should have been TTC chair or elected to council in the first place.
Toronto is in a said state and that is evidenced by the calibar of its muncipal politicans...both left and right...but that is what you get with a voter turn out of 20%.
Yeah you have Bill Clinton. But did anyone ever take him seriously after that. He was impeached ( indicted ). Only the second President to have that stain ( pun intended ). On his record.
Lets add Elliot Spitzer and Governor Sanford whose political careers have crashed and burned because of this. Yet Enzio professes to claim that it is not a big deal. But it ends up being one. Why. Because in the end politics is a matter of trust. If you find the person up there has lied to the people closest to them. They will lie to everyone else.
As usual you're wrong Enzio. It is funny to read how to manage to spin this. Somehow this is everyone's fault but Giambrone. The press, other politicians funny how you don't mention any names. And of course the women. Why can't they just be good little girls swallow their pride show up at some press conference. Gaze adoringly at the man who has lied, cheated and humiliated them. And say it doesn't matter to me so it shouldn't matter to you.
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