Political races have always been a big part of General Hospital, starting in the early 80s. With Drew about to run for Congress, here’s a history of the politics in Port Charles.
The Many Mayors
While John Everett (ex-James Mendenhall) was mayor from 1979-1983, the Mayor of Port Charles viewers remember most is Luke (Anthony Geary, who was last seen on GH in 2017). John married Luke and Laura (Genie Francis) at the Mayor’s Mansion in 1981, and in 1983, Luke ran for mayor against Scotty’s (Kin Shriner) father, Lee (ex-Peter Hansen). As his father’s campaign manager and with a vengeance against Luke, Scotty used smear tactics like threatening to expose Bobbie (ex-Jackie Zeman, who was remembered earlier this year in a special tribute episode) as a former prostitute.
Lee eventually fired his son, and when Luke won and was elected mayor, he appointed Lee as Deputy Mayor. Luke was only in office for a few weeks before he resigned to leave town with Laura, making Lee the Acting Mayor of Port Charles until 1985 when he was replaced by Ken (ex-Lloyd Haynes).
The next notable mayor came along in 2006 when Mayor Floyd (ex-John Bolger), who was known for cheating on his wife, had a one night stand with Alexis (Nancy Lee Grahn), who was later framed for the murder of another one of Floyd’s mistresses.
The next mayor was Mayor Lomax (ex-Shari Belafonte), who spent her time wrapped up in PCPD business, like appointing Anna (Finola Hughes) as police commissioner. But things later took a turn for Mayor Lomax when she threatened to have Olivia (Lisa LoCicero) arrested for breastfeeding her son and is eventually exposed for tampering with election votes in 2017.
With Port Charles in need of a new mayor, Laura and Ned (Wally Kurth) ran against each other and Ned won. Spencer (then-Nicholas Bechtel) hacked the votes in order to favor his grandmother, but confessed once threats of the FBI were mentioned. When they had a re-election in 2019, Laura was ultimately named Mayor of Port Charles, a title she’s held ever since.
Laura’s Deputy Mayor was Eileen (ex-Heather Mazur), who served as Acting Mayor when Laura needed to leave town for her safety against Cyrus (Jeff Kober). Eileen was eventually killed by Victor (ex-Charles Shaughnessy) after being exposed for secretly working for him and was replaced by Jordan (Tanisha Harper), who traded on her job as the police commissioner to become Laura’s current Deputy Mayor.
Plenty More Politics
During the 90s, Justus (ex-Joseph C. Phillips) and A.J. (ex-Sean Kanan) were both city councilman in Port Charles.
The latest in the political game is Congressman McConkey (Sam McMurray), who recently revealed to Drew (Cameron Mathison) his cancer diagnosis. With him being unable to continue in office, he offered to endorse Drew as the next congressman.
Drew has already proven to have several ideas on how to improve the city, including his plans to create a new esplanade, as well as open new gyms with Curtis’ (Donnell Turner) help, and support the New Tomorrow Institute with spokesperson Willow (Katelyn MacMullen). The only thing standing in his way is his recent stint in Pentonville over the insider trading charges.
