That's when someone will concede the Salt Lake City mayor's race for the evening news and Rocky will become officially irrelevant. It's one of the worst moments in a politician's life, the minute when nobody cares what you say anymore, the secret sour aftertaste of retirement.

Which explains the flurry of activity coming from the Mayor's Office last week. Rocky's schedule was packed with little nothings, as Anderson and his staff swept out all the corners:

First, he announced plans to form a nonprofit organization, the HumanKind Education Fund, and asked City Council members to give him a waiver so he can start raising money while still in office. The next day, the mayor retracted his support for a $192 million public safety bond. That evening, his $20,000 city portrait was unveiled. Saturday and Sunday, the mayor was with his peeps, first at a "Step It Up" rally to raise awareness of global warming and then at a rally for Darfur. And Monday, he announced a tree-planting campaign.

Admittedly, I have Rocky fatigue. And the last week of ''watch me doing important mayor stuff'' reminds me why. It seems Rocky has gotten a little lonely as public focus shifted to the men who would replace him - Ralph Becker and Dave Buhler. So he created some news to get the cameras back on him.

This is human nature, of course. Rocky has basked in his built-in celebrity for eight years now, starting with the Winter Olympics and ending with his part-time career as global warming ambassador to the world.

But the limelight is dimming now as Salt Lake City's mayor leaves public life. Speculation is rampant that he might have a job in Washington if a Democrat takes the White House. But that's more than a year away. He's looking down 14 months of obscurity. And it's been nearly a decade since Rocky was obscure. Hard to go back to that.

So he keeps himself busy as best he can, wrapping up eight years of to-do lists.

Weekend rallies have become common for Rocky.

Every mayor, governor and cabinet secretary gets a portrait. So Rocky has two: one private Warhol-esque series unveiled during the Olympics and now this publicly financed reprise of Gainsborough's "The Blue Boy," from Russian artist Galina Perova. Photographs were embargoed until 7:45 p.m. in an attempt to dampen a media frenzy that didn't materialize. Guests at Friday's party each got a small copy of the painting, with a list of Rocky's accomplishments on the back.

Finally, Anderson followed through on plans to form his own nonprofit - emphasis on the "kind."

"It's important that people in this country never have the excuse that they didn't know," Anderson says earnestly, undaunted at the prospect that his platform, the Mayor's Office, soon will be gone.

But bailing on city police - and Chief Chris Burbank - seems a little suspect. The mayor presented the bond to council members in May. He has been quoted on campaign literature. Then on the eve of the election, the guy who carried the Leonardo and Pioneer Park bonds on his back says he is concerned about this bond's bloat, that nonprofits like churches and hospitals and food banks aren't paying for it. He couldn't have said this in July? More importantly, he couldn't have pared down the proposal himself?

City Council members are stunned that the mayor whose staff cajoled them into signing off on the bond has now left them hanging.

"This is no longer about public safety, about what's really important. It's about Rocky," says Councilman Eric Jergensen. "It's a Rocky moment. And isn't every Rocky moment because he needs attention?"

Just what a bruised, lame-duck ego requires.

walsh@sltrib.com