General Hospital spoilers: Laura and Ezra Boyle both lose in bid for mayor?

History shows that elections on General Hospital can become a hotly contested event. The last showdown for mayor of Port Charles between Laura (Genie Francis) and Ned (Wally Kurth) pretty much split the town, and it was a nail-biter for the residents. Now in the present, as Laura is on the precipice of seeking re-election, she may soon find her opponent is more cutthroat than Ned. We, of course, are talking about Ezra Boyle (Daniel Cosgrove).

Ever since Drew (Cameron Mathison) entered his villain era, he’s made an enemy out of almost everyone in town, Laura included. He’s been rather insistent that the pending esplanade be placed on Sonny’s (Maurice Benard) piers, and has labelled Laura as a big hindrance in making that happen. Furthermore, he’s framed Laura to be “soft on crime” publicly, given her friendly and familial status with Sonny. With Drew feeling the way he does, he’s been on a big kick of setting his buddy Ezra up to replace Laura as mayor.

With Ezra enticed by the notion of running Port Charles, it would seem that a showdown could be coming. While Laura has a history with Port Charles and its residents, given she’s lived in the town most of her life, Ezra and Drew are manipulative, ruthless and aren’t above cheating. All in all, this means Laura could find herself in a close race.

However, we have a wild theory to offer up that perhaps when the campaigns officially launch, and the dust settles, neither Laura nor Ezra becomes mayor. Instead, perhaps the new mayor of Port Charles becomes Sonny.

Right away, we fully understand all the reasons why this idea sounds preposterous. For starters, Sonny has a lengthy arrest record and went to prison for the murder of A.J. Quartermaine (Sean Kanan), though later pardoned by the governor. Plus, the Corinthos patriarch is a crime boss and previously ran a strip club. On the surface, these don’t actually sound like qualifications for a political figure.

However, when it comes to Port Charles, Sonny’s traits put him in good mayoral company alongside Laura and Luke (Anthony Geary). Laura has a “criminal” history of her own, having accidentally killed David Hamilton (Jerry Ayres), attempted to murder Helena (Constance Towers), aided and abetted Luke, among other things. And Luke, well, he’s killed several people, including Mikkos Cassadine (John Colicos), has committed his share of thefts and cons, sexually assaulted the love of his life, Laura, ages ago and he also ran a night club. So Sonny’s rap sheet may not be what keeps him out of a mayoral race.

It’s also worth noting that as much as the Quartermaines disparage Sonny, it’s been stated recently on General Hospital that many residents in town relate to Sonny on a “working man” level. Sonny has a “Joe Schmo appeal,” hence the uphill battle that Drew and Ezra face with their esplanade proposition currently.

Now we can’t see a world where Sonny actually runs directly against Laura. In fact, a situation would have to arise that makes Laura decide to step aside. Plus, Sonny would actually need to get out of the mob first, as he’s actively trying to do. But should both of these things happen and Sonny is convinced to run for mayor somehow, then he’d be going up against Ezra. Considering that Ezra is aligned with Sidwell and Drew, two people with dubious secrets, it only takes one of them to be exposed for Ezra’s campaign to quickly sink.

Again, this is all largely theory. However, as Sonny looks to retire from organized crime, we can’t help but think about his next act.

New episodes of General Hospital air on weekdays on ABC. If you miss an episode, you can catch up on Hulu.