Act No.5 list rank on Trade Me
Or should be. What party brings out a list that includes yet to be named special guest stars? Or puts NZ's political Pinochet at No.3?The party seems to have disintegrated - who are these people on the list. What remnant is this? I see the familiar looking names of long-time party stalwarts filling out the lower ranks, but precious little else.
Act are shot without money. They used to spend millions on an election. Beyond the party's ATM at No.4 what have they got? They got whatever intersection of vanity and personal wealth pops up at No.5 - that's my pick.
It is not a bad strategy for a party in desperate times. They need the dough, but that alone won't trump a competent campaigner at No.5 instead of just a No.5 who has enough money to hire a competent campaigner. I suggested that Russel Norman should have been put in a similar situation in the Greens this time round - at around No.8 - to make him perform to earn his seat by lifting the vote to get himself in. The ultimate KPI. Act's best strategy would be to put a real fighter at No.5 - not a super-rich candidate, not a celebrity, but a brawling, canny and ambitious person who would chuck the kitchen sink into being an MP. The best person I could think of - who can really campaign like his life depended on it - is a guy who used to be the party manager a few years back: Graham Watson.
---------------UPDATE---------------
He's No.39 on the Act Party list. His blog ranks somewhere in that order on the nz blogosphere list too. It is close to completion.
posted by Tim Selwyn @ 1:24 pm
7 comments
7 Comments:
I'LL DO IT!
If we get Graham, does that mean we get Nick Keesing as well?
THOSE PUNKS FROG-MARCHED ME OUT OF THE QUAD BY THE ARM AND THEN CALLED THE COPS ON THEIR MOBILE TO HAVE ME ARRESTED.AND FOR WHAT, JEALOUS RIVALRY I BET...TIRED OLD HAS-BEENS
Is that the Graham Watson that gave himself painting contracts when he was student president?
The same Graham Watson who, when drunk with mate and student presidnet Ritchie Watson, broke into and tried to sabotage the counting of votes?
The same Graham Watson who finally left university in his 30's to work in politics?
Yeah, he will make a typical politician.
The very same, the very same. The same guy that organised Spots in the Quad and who has taken the students association to court almost as many times as years he has spent hanging around uni. Yes, him.
We all know his past - what I'm saying is that he would make a good candidate for Act at the number 5 placing. He scrubs up like a younger Richard Prebble when he puts on a suit. My main point is that when it comes to campaigns he has a terminator-type focus - and practical nous, street smarts and pragmatism - that is what they need now. He's far from perfect in many respects, but Act can't afford to pick a show pony for this slot.
ACT would never make Graham a candidate in a million years. God, don't be silly, that would actually be sensible and help them achieve their goals!
I'll vote for them, I'll campaign for them, but I'll never respect them. They just believe in better ideas than the other politicians. That's all.
Well Tim, I wouldn't want Graham anywhere near parliament.
Yet one more "whats in it for me" politician is bad enough, but a "I will flout the laws to get the result I want' politician?
No thanks, one Winston is enough.
Post a Comment
<< Home