6 for Christchurch East

Written By: - Date published: 1:18 pm, September 9th, 2013 - 12 comments
Categories: by-election, by-election 2013, labour - Tags:

Labour yesterday announced the 6 candidates standing for selection to be the Christchurch East candidate in the impending by-election (with profiles).

All are locals, and there’s no Clayton Cosgrove despite early rumour-mongering.

It looks a talented list.  The 2 men have been trailed in the media previously – James Caygill, who hopefully people won’t judge on the fact that his father was finance minister from 1988-1990 (his work on Policy Progress might be a better start, or his work for the environment, Ngai Tahu, or Christchurch orchestra), and Deon Swiggs who won a volunteer award for his work since the earthquake.

But here are 4 women standing too – Poto Williams with a long background in care-work, an MBA and working on a PhD in Pacific women’s leadership; Tina Lomax, principal of Kingslea School educating CYFS kids in residential care and a Labour Community Board member; Christina Laalaai-Tausa, a Samoan Political Science PhD student and lecturer; and Registered Nurse and Midwife Karen Hayes.

I’m not local and have no special knowledge of any of them so can’t nominate a favourite.  But the candidate selected will still have a hard task ahead of them – Lianne Dalziel’s majority of 5,334 contrasts with a National Party majority in the party votes of 4,152.  Still having Jim Anderton as campaign manager should help…

The date of the by-election is not yet set as Lianne Dalziel is yet to resign (but will do before Local Election Day October 12).

12 comments on “6 for Christchurch East ”

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  1. Waffler 1
    9 September 2013 at 1:54 pm

    Great to see such a talented list of people standing! Lianne’s done great work out here and there’s an increasing amount of support for Labour on the street so I’m confident that whoever gets the nod will win the electorate.

    Personally, I’m hoping James Caygill gets the nod. I think he’s got the right balance of state sector/private sector experience, a pretty formidable intellect, and he’s only mid-thirties.

    Having said that, there are a couple of names down there I don’t know too much about so will need to do more research.

  2. George D 2
    9 September 2013 at 2:33 pm

    There’s a lot of talent in there. Plenty of intelligence evidenced by advanced degrees, and great amounts of distinguished community service. Good people.

    Whoever is selected will have an excellent chance of keeping this seat.

  3. Craig Glen viper 3
    9 September 2013 at 2:54 pm

    Should be an interesting candidate selection process!

  4. Lanthanide 4
    9 September 2013 at 4:34 pm

    Has Lianne actually resigned? Has she said if she would resign before or after the mayoralty election?

    • Bunji 4.1
      9 September 2013 at 7:14 pm

      To quote the last sentence of the OP:
      “The date of the by-election is not yet set as Lianne Dalziel is yet to resign (but will do before Local Election Day October 12).“

  5. Tigger 5
    9 September 2013 at 5:05 pm

    No man-ban? Or is that being saved for other seats? Warning Labour: bringing out the ‘we must have a woman here’ needs to be used fairly, not so you can grant favours to certain women candidates.

    • Bunji 5.1
      9 September 2013 at 7:30 pm

      The “man-ban” (if we accept the right’s political framing) – even if it hadn’t been scrapped by Shearer – couldn’t have applied. It was a proposal (along with many changes to the candidate selection process) to be voted on at the annual conference to be held in November (it’s now not even that).
      So it isn’t in the constitution for a Labour local electorate committee to request to the Party Council that only women candidates be allowed to stand to represent them as a means of improving Labour’s gender representation.

  6. tamati 6
    9 September 2013 at 5:42 pm

    The establishment seems to have already anointed James Caygill, so I’m firmly in the ABC (Anyone one but Caygill) camp.

  7. mac1 7
    9 September 2013 at 6:48 pm

    I knew Leon Swiggs when he first joined the Party. An impressive young man, by all accounts since, (well, Wikipedia anyway) as he was then.

  8. millsy 8
    9 September 2013 at 11:12 pm

    Solid line up. But no more. Labour needs more than solid.

  9. Aotearoean 9
    12 September 2013 at 9:59 am

    My vote for the leadership is Cunliffe Jones Robertscn.However Caucus elects the 2ic!

  10. Aotearoean 10
    12 September 2013 at 9:59 am

    My vote for the leadership is Cunliffe Jones Robertscn.However Caucus elects the 2ic!

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