09 Feb Private lives of public people
Toronto is collectively confused this morning as a rising political star with a week-old mayoral campaign has confirmed he had “an inappropriate relationship with a young woman.”
Adam Giambrone, seen above with partner Sarah McQuarrie, has apologized for his relationship with university student Kristen Lucas. He is no doubt mortified--but that won’t be enough to stop the questions about the future of his campaign.
This isn’t over by a long shot. Why? As evidenced by last week's casual outing of a Conservative Minister, it’s often the case that elected-people will simply refuse to comment on their “private lives”. As a result, the story simply goes away. It happens more than people would think.
However, when the private life and the public life collide there is bound to be an issue. Like with Maxime Bernier. His issues with Julie Couillard only became a full-fledged scandal when she went “public” about her time with the Minister, and in the course of those interviews she revealed that secret-level documents were left at her home for weeks.
Giambrone stands accused of staging the announcement of his partner to benefit his campaign (and attempting to keep an ongoing fling with Lucas), telling her about TTC fare increases and, as the Toronto Star reports, several more salacious details:
Giambrone told Lucas that he hoped they could continue seeing each other,and assured her, "I had to have someone political." In recent interviewswith the Star, Lucas said she's been involved with Giambrone sincelate 2008 and, on several occasions, had sex late at night on a couch in his City Hall office.
In short, watch out: it’s going to be a feeding frenzy. The private and public just collided.
Giambrone was already in for a rough ride. “Troubled” is the most frequent adjective attached to the Toronto Transit Authority--of which Giambrone is chair. The Toronto media, egged on by frustrated transit riders, have been sticking it to the troubled TTC’s service “issues” for a few weeks now.
But the real problems are right in the facts as presented in the Toronto Star. The two parties are kilometers apart. He says the relationship “consisted of text messages and conversations in public places only.” She says it was a year-long, intimate affair.
His campaign needs to sort out the truth, get him onto the most sympathetic TV set (with partner Sarah) and tell the whole story. All of it. The only real hope is being more human than the people who are gloating gleefully about the scandal.
Whether or not he can recover from this depends less on his team orsupporters and more on his partner’s reaction.
So, is this what you sign up for when you are elected? What do electors have the right to know? How much should a citizen need to know before casting a ballot? Please comment below.
Giambrone invited this attention when he trotted out Sarah McQuarrie (why do people use only first names when mentioning women?) at his launch and for a few events after that gay bit in NOW. Indeed, his having a long-term partner was news to most people. Which in itself is odd, but no big deal. But when he says that he and Lucas had a relationship of text messages and meeting in public places and she says they had sex in his office many times and in her bed at her parents place, you have to wonder why a 19-year-old would make up. It is most often the cover-up that gets you, not the crime.
In any event, another mistake is not telling Lash about this. I bet he is pretty steamed to be broadsided in week 2.
Excellent choice of photo for this post, BTW.
I agree with you…. They do need to just be honest. For people like me, it shows that they’re human enough to ADMIT when they’re wrong.
If they can’t even admit when a relationship is inappropriate… how will they be able to admit when they make a bad decision that affects the rest of us?
That being said.. The media? The people that watch the news? Whoever drives this giant machine that makes personal issues into public ones… I’m tired of it.
Slander campaigns always make me less likely to vote for the people slandering.
It’s not slander if it is true.
I think this is a failure of tact and good judgement. Despite his accomplishments and ability to manage his spectacular career, this treatment of a partner as political leverage tool is wrong and far too prevalent today in my opinion. Keeping you relationships to yourself is great and why they don’t get reported – but to utilize them for your political advantage invites scrutiny.
Adam has built up a lot of political capitol and now seems to be spending it fast. That is never good sign for a political career. I think this campaign has about 1 month to get back on track.
I had similar thoughts reading this this morning.
Like all races where there is a Liberal in the running, the Toronto Star has picked its side. Not much anyone can do about that. The people who own the paper get to decide what slant they put on it. Nothing new there.
But what is new is that the Toronto Star appears to have crossed the Rubicon as far as making personal lives of those seeking or holding public office a public issue. Until now, Canada’s news agencies have been of the opinion by-and-large, that what goes on in the bedrooms of politicians is off limits. The rule being that if it doesn’t impact their jobs it doesn’t impact the news.
But with this article, has the Toronto Star gone too far? In an effort to sell papers and ad space – and perhaps advance their point of view – are Canada’s media-owning corporations poised to subject Canadians to the politics of personal destruction that blights US politics?
If so, how can we stop it?
I’ve known Adam for over a decade, and I think he almost always shows good judgement. I think his personal sex-life really doesn’t impact his job performance at all. The fact that he isn’t married also makes this story even more curious as to its infidelity overtones.
If citizens are complaining about the quality of their politicians, than look no further than this story, and ask themselves, what sane person would want to go under such scrutiny? This unnecessary focus on the personal lives of politicians, I believe, keeps good people from running for political office. I think Adam is a great politician, and I hope that he can weather this storm and become Toronto’s next mayor.
This isn’t the Star’s fault. It’s Giambrone’s, assuming that Ms. Lucas’s evidence holds up.
Would any media outlet say no to what Ms. Lucas offered them? It appears that there is verifiable documentation that the Star could have vetted with its lawyers. They contacted Giambrone, who confirmed that he had an “inappropriate” relationship.
Ian, I think you’re missing one alternative for Giambrone. Suspend the campaign, admit that he committed a major falsehood in his personal life, move on, and if he’s able to return to politics in the future, then he can.
It’s not like the TTC doesn’t need strong leadership.
It’s interesting to see how people have taken this story: a mix of it’s-none-of-our-business to burning Giambrone at the stake.
Plainly, my opinion is this – he’s been in public office for years now, he knows the drill. Why he (or Tiger Woods or any man or woman cheating on their partner) would send text messages or leave voicemails is beyond me – it’s called a paper trail, people!
A lot of people have also been saying that Mel Lastman, who was mayor when his scandal broke, was not treated the same way Giambrone’s is. If I remember correctly, Lastman owned up to the affair, and the resulting (now adult) almost immediately as soon as the press got wind of it. I can’t help but wonder how different the Giambrone reaction would have been today if his statement had owned up to the affair, and the misdeeds instead of calling it an “inappropriate relationship” and a “mistake” that didn’t go beyond texting.
That being said, I think The Star was good to go with this story, assuming all of Lucas’ evidence added up.
“Would any media outlet say no to what Ms. Lucas offered them?”
Objectively, I think we have to answer ‘yes.’ The fact is that many don’t.
There are dozens of politicians and public figures in this country (Ottawa has more than a few) with known-but-officially-unknown personal problems. It is why afterall, Frank magazine was loved and hated in its hay-day. It remains the only place that stories of this type were generally printed.
Putting aside the dubious ethics of the man and woman involved, The Star made a call with this story. And it is an unsual call to have made given all precident of how this subject matter is dealt with by Canadian media.
It may have worrisome ramifications for our public debate in this country.
Looks like Bob had the right idea: Adam GIambrone has dropped out of the race. Thanks all for the comments. I think this story may in fact be the start of a strange era in public vs. private lives.