Despite the early posturing by Downer and his resignation, it would seem that the official resignation letter has not yet been received by the Speaker of the House. But then as it turns out there is a major blue brewing for the Liberals’ pre-selection of a successor. There are 9 candidates and is probably splitting the SA Liberals in very unexpected ways.
Downer must have known this would happen, or perhaps he was being pushed aside anyway. Either way 9 pre-selection candidates will test the Liberals and no doubt there are going to be some ripper public stoushes. This may play in favour for the Greens candidate being the only real alternative for voters. True the Greens may not win the seat, they have proven their willingness to give voters a viable alternative party to vote for on polling day.
The public brawling of pre-selection candidates from the tired old parties only further confirms the worst aspects of these old tired parties. It’s boring and reveals the ugliness of the Labor and Liberal machines. Well in this case the Liberal machine since Labor’s not committing to standing a candidate.
There is yet to be a true independent candidate running and no news about a prospective independent candidate. Although there has been no official declaration of a vacancy and the call for candidates. That will point in time will come and it will be interesting to see if there are any independent candidates game to run.
Obviously resigning has made things complicated for Downer, and he’s waiting to see how things go in the pre-selection battle before ‘officially’ resigning as the Member for Mayo.
The Mayo by-election will prove even juicier than the Gippsland by-election for election addicts.
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As found on
Alex’s Choice News- Climate sceptics versus spin versus science November 13, 2009The media storm over climate sceptics in the Coalition, triggered by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's Lowy Institute speech last Friday and the ABC's Four Corners program on Monday night, is bringing much needed rain for a government whose climate credentials were looking very dry. It has very effectively framed the debate in the Government's super […]
- Why is Rudd going to Copenhagen? November 13, 2009Australian Greens Deputy Leader, Senator Christine Milne, said: "Unless and until Mr Rudd is willing to step up to the plate and commit to the safe climate target of 40% emissions cuts, his presence at Copenhagen will only serve to hold back progress towards a meaningful global agreement. "Mr Rudd and his fellow leaders of the rich world are increa […]
- No Road Tunnel, No Freeway rally November 13, 2009
- Climate sceptics versus spin versus science November 13, 2009
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Alex Schlotzer by Alex Schlotzer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License.
Based on a work at alexschlotzer.wordpress.com.
July 20, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Interesting perspective you have on Democrats’ opportunities. With ALP definitely not standing a candidate, it would be nice to see the Democrats stand a candidate.
July 15, 2008 at 7:51 am
The Mayo byelection will be even juicier if the ALP don’t run a candidate. Yes, the Libs will win on first preferences but we’ll either see record low turnout (a la the Brisbane Central by-election when Beattie resigned and the Libs didn’t run a candidate) or we’ll see how well ALP votes convert to Green votes.
It would be even more interesting if the Democrats managed to find someone to run. They came close in 1990 but they were much stronger, then, than they are now. I think Laura Chipp could give it a go and see how much of the vote they can pull away from the Liberals and how much of the ALP vote they can pick up. It may very well be that Downer has thrown the SA Democrats a temporary life line.