The sudden departure of George Smitherman's campaign manager had as much to do with how early the race became a round-the-clock affair as it did with strategic disagreements in a camp of old Liberal and Tory foes, a senior Conservative says.
The biggest issue for Jeff Bangs, whose resignation was announced at 10 p.m. on Friday night, was that “he had been promised/expected something that was less than full-time till late summer/fall and it turned into 24/7 right away. [It was] not sustainable for his business,” the source said.
But another source close to the Smitherman campaign countered that Mr. Bangs knew what he was getting into from the outset. “George is known to be a bullet train. He doesn't do a half-hearted campaign,” the source said, while others said Mr. Bangs was a pro who wouldn't have underestimated the workload.
Speculation swirled on the weekend about whether internal strife prompted the resignation of Mr. Bangs, a partner in the government relations firm Pathway Group who served as principal secretary to former premier Ernie Eves, held senior posts in the Mike Harris administration and helped John Tory win the leadership of Ontario's Progressive Conservatives. Mr. Smitherman is notoriously tough on his staff, with a temper that earned him the nickname Furious George in his Queen's Park days.
While some sources acknowledged there was tension inside a campaign with a hot-headed candidate and aides and volunteers of different political stripes, most were uncharacteristically tight-lipped about what precipitated Mr. Bangs's departure. One Liberal source not centrally involved in the campaign suggested Mr. Bangs was too laid back and “didn't light a fire under people.”
Mr. Bangs's decision has piqued curiosity in part because the Smitherman campaign has been so low-key. The former deputy premier is taking the classic front-runner's approach, postponing policy pronouncements that might alienate some voters. But as the biggest name in the race, political observers are watching him closely. Without a platform to dissect, they're left to analyze what a senior aide's departure says about the candidate. Mr. Smitherman is expected to name a new campaign manager soon.
“Mr. Smitherman is well-known to be a very colourful character, shall we say, who has his own point of view,” said Mr. Tory, now a radio host. “And some candidates have a stronger point of view than others about how things should be done and that can further make it a challenge. So the notion that these things would go on in the Smitherman campaign is not totally surprising to me.”
He described Mr. Bangs as quiet, but intense. “He's not a combative person.” Mr. Bangs did not know Mr. Smitherman well personally when he joined the campaign in December. Mr. Bangs’s move at the time was perceived as a blow to Mr. Tory's mayoral aspirations.
Ralph Lean, the Smitherman campaign's chief fundraiser, said that great work is happening behind the scenes at the campaign. There is “heaps of money in the till” and Mr. Lean expects the campaign to surpass its fundraising target of $1.5-million as early as June 30.
Stefan Baranski, a spokesman for the Smitherman campaign, dismissed any suggestion of internal problems as “nonsense” and “idle speculation.” He issued a statement Friday night saying Mr. Bangs left to spend more time with his young family and business. Mr. Bangs did not return messages Sunday seeking comment.
“I think all of us were, frankly, caught off-guard by how robust the campaigns are already,” Mr. Baranski added in an interview.
The race to replace David Miller heated up early in part because the other serious competitors are scrambling to match Mr. Smitherman's name recognition – not because the field is packed with widely known heavyweights. Rocco Rossi, the former Liberal fundraiser and CEO of the Heart and Stroke Foundation, has never held elected office. Neither has magazine publisher Sarah Thomson. Giorgio Mammoliti and Rob Ford are both long-time councillors, with Mr. Ford the better-known of the two. Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone, the only serious candidate on the left, spent the beginning of the race in the shadow of Adam Giambrone, the progressive standard-bearer whose campaign imploded over a sex scandal.
“For us to win, Smitherman has to come down from where he was in the early polls. If this takes him down a little, that helps us,” said John Laschinger, the veteran Conservative who led Mr. Miller's winning mayoral bids and is now managing Mr. Pantalone's campaign.
With reports from Adam Radwanski and Sarah Boesveld
