It has become rapidly apparent that there is no "Miller-ite" candidate in the race or on the horizon who can hope to stop the mayor's chain of office from going to George Smiterman and can hope to continue Miller's soft centre-centre-left political legacy. Whether he realizes it or not, Giambrone's campaign has immolated. Giambrone could have survived this sex scandal if he had an otherwise solid campaign and was an otherwise strong candidate - but he's not. The only thing Giambrone has done in the past three weeks is confirm, time and time again, that he's just too immature for the job - not too young for the job but too immature. Joe Pantalone, the other erstwhile NDPer in the race, doesn't seem to have much hope of gaining traction.
With his legacy on the line the chances of David Miller jumping back in the race should not be discounted particularly as John Tory's withdrawal helps Miller's chances considerably. Consider that even without Tory, Smitherman is falling short of majority support in public opinion polls and this is at a point where he is still running more on name recognition as most Torontonians outside of his riding do not really know him very well yet. Smitherman's bulldog personality would have played well against Giambrone but might not do as well up against Miller who, for all the faults of his administration, is generaly respected on a personal level. Miller's also the best person to defend his legacy and articulate a need to continue public ownership of services against Smitherman and Rossi's eagerness for public-private partnerships - a gravy train their financial supporters are especially eager to climb aboard. Finally, the garbage strike which probably did more to influence Miller's decision to retire is now ancient history. It might have been enough to defeat Miller had the election been in 2009 but by October 2010 how many people will be casting their ballot because of it?
While I wouldn't bet money that Miller will have a change of heart I would be surprised if in the next few weeks a number of city councillors and his previous supporters don't prevail on him to run again. I'd be even more suprised if he doesn't give it some serious thought.