General Hospital’s Sonny is on trial in the court of public opinion, but I think he will come out on top

General Hospital’s Laura (Genie Francis) made a very smart decision to put the location of the esplanade up for a vote. By letting the people of Port Charles decide on the location, she has taken herself out of Sonny’s (Maurice Benard) crosshairs and stopped Ezra Boyle (Daniel Cosgrove) and Drew Cain (Cameron Mathison) from attacking her credibility publicly.

But now Sonny has to convince the people of Port Charles that the esplanade should stay in the original location. If he can’t do that, the city will seize his piers and force him to make some drastic changes in his business.

Sonny knows his way around the law, and he has Diane (Carolyn Hennesy) in his pocket to fight his court battles. However, even if he was able to win a court battle to maintain control of the waterfront property, he’d lose more than he gained because of how it would damage his public reputation. And let’s be real, his public reputation isn’t great.

The only way that Sonny can come out of this with his reputation and business intact is to win over the people of Port Charles and convince voters that the esplanade should stay in the original location. That’s going to be a lot harder for him to do than fight for his property legally.

Crime Boss Corinthos

Sonny’s history of misdeeds goes back decades. His role as the head of a criminal organization is the worst-kept secret in Port Charles. And he’s run afoul of nearly every major figure in the city at one point or another. Even though the coffee business is a legitimate business, it funds some of Sonny’s criminal activities, too.

Because Sonny has a long and indisputable criminal history in Port Charles, there are definitely going to be people who will vote against him based on his past actions and involvement in criminal activities.

There are also people who will vote against him because they’ve had run-ins with him or with members of his organization. He may not win over those voters. However, Sonny does still have two big advantages that could be enough for him to win the vote.

Sonny gives a lot of money away

How Sonny makes his fortune may be a little sketchy, but he gives that money away very freely. He gives money to his family and friends liberally, like paying for Gio’s education and giving Kristina Charlie’s Pub. Sonny also gives a lot of money to various charities in Port Charles, although he prefers to give money anonymously.

If Sonny releases the details of all the money he’s given to various charities that benefit the people of Port Charles over the years, he can win over a lot of voters by showing that he supports the people of Port Charles.

Of course, Sonny can’t release the details of his charitable giving himself, or it will look like he’s trying to buy the favor of voters. But Aurora could run a story on Sonny and disclose all of his charitable donations over the years to balance out the perception that he’s just a thug crime boss getting rich off illegal activities.

If Aurora runs a profile on Sonny, digging deep into his character, highlighting his love for his family and his loyalty to Port Charles, and disclosing his charitable donations, it could definitely raise his popularity with the voters.

Everyone is terrible in this situation

The other big advantage that could help Sonny come out on top is that the people leading the charge to get his property seized are just as awful as Sonny, or possibly worse. Drew and Ezra Boyle are politicians, and voters tend to dislike and distrust career politicians.

Drew is a newly elected official who has a lot of skeletons and is currently living with his nephew’s wife. He also just went viral for trying to have the Quartermaine crypt destroyed.

With a good press team, Sonny could demolish what’s left of Drew’s public reputation and make voters turn against him. He could do the same to Ezra Boyle. Sonny and Laura are close, so it’s very unlikely he will let Boyle destroy Laura’s political career by attacking her credibility.

The other person who wants the esplanade situated on the piers, Jenz Sidwell (Carlo Rota), seems to have a vendetta against Sonny, but he doesn’t have enough sway in Port Charles yet to be a real player in this fight. Voters don’t know or trust him. And Sidwell has his own long criminal history that will work against him.

So really, everyone involved in this fight is problematic. If voters have to pick one person to back in this situation, Sonny seems like the logical choice. All of the people associated with the location of the esplanade have criminal backgrounds and have something to lose in the fight over the esplanade location. Voters could easily decide to back Sonny with their votes because at least Sonny has given money to the community and seems committed to improving Port Charles.

If I were a voter in this situation, I would vote to keep the esplanade at the first location. That’s where it was originally designed to go, and I’d rather back someone who gives a lot of money to community charities and local people rather than people like Drew Cain, Ezra Boyle or Sidwell, who are only looking out for their own interests.

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