Chris Luxon has been elected is to be confirmed as the new leader of the Opposition. This is an awfully big bet. And National managed to have a peaceful hand over of power even thought the egos were too big.
National’s previously contested leadership battles did not end well. In 2003 Don Brash took out Bill English in a leadership coup and won narrowly, 14 to 12. Interestingly it has been reported that English and his supporters offered Key the finance spokesman position for his vote. They thought that they had won and there are rumours that Key flipped although these were denied by him.
In 2006 after Brash resigned following the publication of Nicky Hager’s book the Hollow Men Key was elected unopposed as leader and stayed there until 2016. Bill English then stood as leader with Key’s support and was elected unopposed.
Fast forward to 2018 and in a hotly contested battle Bridges beat four others to become leader. But he did not last long and in the face of sagging poll results and undermined by the action of Jami-Lee Ross he was taken out by Todd Muller.
But things became worse. Muller lasted only 53 days before the pressure of running a totally dysfunctional caucus got to him.
Then Judith emerged and beat off Mark Mitchell not long before the 2020 election. For Deputy Gerry Brownlee was voted in ahead of Paora Goldsmith. Nikki Kaye and Amy Adams decided to get out of there and joined the ranks of a number of others leaving a clearly sinking ship.
Then this latest leadership coup. Although it has been resolved amicably National still has a lot of healing to do.
History shows that contested elections do not work well and that peaceful transitions are much better. National will be hoping that this plays out differently. as Bridges agreed to let Luxon take over.
But the fact that they could not even agree on a place to hold the post caucus meeting press conference does not bode well.
Time will tell. But my first very strong response is that Chris Luxon is no John Key. And with Judith still hanging around he is going to have his hands full.
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