Posts by Russell Brown
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However, it isn't fair to say our efforts in that electorate have been half-hearted. Our strategy has been to stand candidates with a view to increasing the party vote.
Yeah, I do understand that. I was responding to what Stephen said, which seemed to be sustaining the idea in this thread that the Greens have always bin dun wrong. And I do think there's been untapped potential in Auckland Central for years.
IMO, it would be useful for the Greens to start targetting potentially winnable seats, and Mt Albert will serve as a key learning exercise in this regard. Winning and holding an electorate seat may be key to the Green's survival in the future, especially if National succeed in wrecking MMP.
Absolutely agreed. But that will, I think, mean someone putting down roots. Reading between the lines, it seems that Russel won't be back in Mt Albert in 2011.
If you look OTOH at Phil Twyford, he started acting as Labour's de facto Auckland Central MP very shortly after being elected on the list (which leads me to believe the Mt Albert decision isn't quite the betrayal the beltway types say it is). Are any of the Green caucus specifically identifying with electorates? Genuine question.
I suggested that some of the Mt Albert Labour people might end up feeling carpetbagged upthread, and got a pretty sharp response. But the fact is, these are people with a very long-term commitment to the local electorate organisation -- they were there before, and they'll be there afterwards. That's what holding key elecorates is about.
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BTW, here's a question for Russel Norman: does standing now in Mt Albert mean that come-what-may, he'll stand in Mt Albert in 2011? Or is it just a fling?
I can answer my own question! Kinda.
The campaign email I got over night from Russel:
And, I also want you to know that if I win, I’ll move back up to Auckland.
So no commitment to the electorate beyond June 13.
And before that:
Should the Green Party pull off an upset win in Mt Albert, the Chief Electoral Office has advised that another list member, Dave Clendon, would join the Greens in Parliament. Getting a 10th MP, of such a high calibre, would really be the icing on the cake. It’s important for you to know that no matter who wins the Mt Albert seat it will have no impact on the Government’s majority in Parliament.
Uh, is he mistaken -- we've established that the result will have an impact on the government's majority if National wins, haven't we? -- or being clever with words here?
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and why is it that the Greens are always the ones expected to sacrifice themselves for the sake of Labour? (but funnily enough it doesn't seem to work that way for Act/National)
Do the Greens have to be the victims in every story?
The fact is that the Greens haven't looked close to winning any electorate contest since Jeanette Fitzsimons lost Coromandel after one term -- and that wasn't even close: she came third .
It's hard not to feel she and the party could have done better there -- it would have been an enormous advantage to have had the seat in the long term.
In Auckland Central, where there has always been potential, campaigns have always been half-hearted.
In Mt Albert, the Greens have no case whatsoever to ask Labour to stand aside, given that Labour candidates have held the seat ever since it existed. Not that I'm saying anybody should be obliged to stand aside. It would just be bizarro for Labour to do so in that particular electorate.
BTW, here's a question for Russel Norman: does standing now in Mt Albert mean that come-what-may, he'll stand in Mt Albert in 2011? Or is it just a fling?
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Wow. How's this for day one at the new job?
Kathleen Sebelius wins Senate confirmation Tuesday as US Health and Human Services secretary.
Wednesday: she's responsible for the swine flu response.
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Oh. So I've spent the afternoon blathering about the Implications For The Left Of The Mt Albert Primary, and you guys have been over here, just jammin'.
Bastards.
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At that point looking for private solutions is as much 'privatisation' as saying that my actions in investigating the market for a flux capacitor is equivalient to me privatising the provision of my domestic time travel needs.
Not that I'm saying that didn't work -- because it totally did. It was off the aptness scale.
But it was really geeky.
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It is sad that Michael Stevens is unable to recognise that asexuals face discrimination, sexual attacks, the whole bejeebus - but on his head be it.
That column is like he's contrived to give the appearance of thinking, but actually isn't.
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Actually, you know who gets to be as politically incorrect as all get-out?
Old dykes.
I was talking to my favourite Grey Lynn lesbian and discovered we'd both been at the Lucinda Williams show.
"Yeah, we had a great view of the stage," she said. "Good enough to see her cameltoe."
Yowza!
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That game is never going to end, and the prizes suck.
So that toaster-oven thing was only for lesbians? Damn.
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There are some fundamental aspects of the Greens (marijuana policy and Sue Kedgley, for instance) that just aren't that attractive to a lot of Labour supporters.
I'll have one but not the other ;-)
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