An amusing story appeared on today’s SMH web-site about postering shenanigans in the state seat of Sydney for the upcoming election.
An iron-pumping Liberal Party candidate and a political rival have allegedly clashed on a inner Sydney street over campaign posters.
Liberal candidate for Sydney, Edward Mandla, had encountered colourful Sydney lawyer and independent candidate Malcolm Duncan allegedly attempting to pull his posters down about 12.45pm yesterday near the corner of Glenmore Road and Flinton Street, Paddington.
…
According to a police report lodged by Mr Duncan, reported in the Daily Telegraph, Mr Mandla got out of the car he was driving and confronted Mr Duncan.
“I was just standing there and before I could move I felt Mr Mandla come up behind me and thrust his upper right thigh into my bottom and between my legs … on reflection I think he may have been aiming at my testicles,” the statement reportedly read.
According to the Telegraph, Mr Mandla denied he attacked Mr Duncan, claiming it was the barrister who attacked him – shoving him and almost injuring his eye with his long pole.
Of course, Malcolm Duncan has no chance of winning, and Edward Mandla has almost none. The Greens and Liberals have the most posters up around William St, Potts Pt and Elizabeth Bay, but I’d be surprised if they have much impact, apart from reminding people that they exist!
March 19, 2007 at 8:42 pm
Ah the fine art of reverse corfluting. Just don’t get caught.
I think I recall that Albo was once caught in the act during the Marrickville by-election.
March 19, 2007 at 9:37 pm
Corflutus interruptus?
March 20, 2007 at 2:54 pm
You are wrong about Mandla having no chance. Mandla has Clover rattled and the seat is poised for an upset. Few people know how hard Mandla has worked. Apparently Clover has been very concerned with the level of support Mandla is generating.
March 20, 2007 at 3:03 pm
I don’t think that the Moore camp is too rattled. Mandla’s own litertaure makes some odd reference to the Iemma/Moore Government, so he either doesn’t even know that she’s an independent and/or doesn’t understand how things really work in Macquarie St – she’s never been part of the Government! Furthermore, Mandla’s cheap attempt to appeal to the GLBTQI community by appearing in the gay press working out in a muscle shirt is superficial and insulting. Sure, you could jest that Clover’s chokers are an attempt to appeal to the inner dominatrix in all of us, but that’s just a humourous quip on my part. It’s not a blatant, stereotyped grab for attention like Mandla’s SSO article. In any case, I’m not voting for either of them. At this point, I’d really like to support that cat on the green carpet circle (see post “The modelling bussie” above).
March 20, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Chris Masters, It doesn’t matter how hard a candidate works, what matters is whether their campaign is effective. Have you polling that indicates that a lot of usual Clover voters are going to vote for Mandla? In all state and federal elections in which Clover hasn’t stood, the ALP has won the two-party-preferred vote in the state seat for a long time. It would be a very odd result for the Liberal Party to win the state seat, although it is of course possible.
March 20, 2007 at 3:18 pm
Is Mandla still too scared to tell voters what his opinion on the injecting centre is? He wouldn’t even tell a Liberal-voting friend of mine in front of Woolworths at Potts Pt! He’s been “listening” to what people think about the injecting centre for about a year now.
March 20, 2007 at 5:36 pm
Sasha, I don’t pay attention to polling even internal party ones. They are so unreliable for so many reasons and are usually self serving. What I do pay attention to is the bookies. Apparently some serious money is being put down on Mandla to win. This is not the same seat as before, the boundaries have moved it into more conservative areas and Clover has lost her two most loyal suburbs, glebe and ultimo/redfern. Get ready for an upset.
March 20, 2007 at 7:00 pm
I’ll take it more seriously if you give a link to the betting markets.
Sportingbet doesn’t reflect your claim:
http://www.sportingbet.com.au/uipub/sport.aspx?l1id=34&l2id=531527&l3id=561104&l4id=561108
which has:
Clover Moore paying $1.12
Linda Scott paying $5.50
Chris Harris paying $7.50
Edward Mandla paying $51.00
any other candidate paying $51.00
I think you’re confusing the Sydney City Council elections with the old seat of Bligh. If anything, the seat is less Liberal-voting than before. Darling Pt (strong liberal) and Darlington (strong 2PP ALP) have been removed and replaced with Ultimo, Pyrmont and the CBD. Let’s look at the 2PP vote in the last federal election to get a feel of whether the 2PP Liberal vote has increased in the state seat of Sydney due to boundary changes. If it has, then Mandla has a better chance.
In the 2004 federal election, the relevant 2PP booths votes were (ordered: Lib, ALP)
Darling Pt: 1389, 586 (remove)
Darlington: 278, 897 (remove)
Millers Pt: 532, 575 (add)
Pyrmont: 1186, 1261 (add)
Ultimo: 284, 714 (add)
(There may have been minor changes around Paddington/Woolahra.)
Lib gain: 335
ALP gain: 1067
Net ALP gain: 702
702 isn’t a great number of votes in, say, 40,000 valid votes, but it’s about 2%. So according to the 2004 fed election results, the state seat of Sydney is more ALP voting than the seat of Bligh. If this translates to the state election, Mandla would find it a little bit harder to win Sydney than he would have found to win Bligh.
March 20, 2007 at 7:07 pm
I don’t know whether I am going to win or not but I have worked hard and I hope Clover Moore will take notice that she hasn’t done enough in the area. All I get when I door knock is I voted for Clover last time, the time before but I won’t be voting for her again. That doesn’t mean I will get the vote but it does mean her best days are behind her. I will close the gap. I do recall the lady outside Woolworths. You never know when you are being set up in politics and it isn’t always easy to talk tough matters with strangers. I am open to have coffee with anyone to talk this matter through. As for the SX article it was groundbreaking. I spoke from the heart and what was published was pretty close. Thanks for taking interest guys – I hope to be around for a long time! And Clover is rattled – come to the second debate tomorrow night and you will find out why.
March 20, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Edward, I agree with you that Clover may have less chance of winning than before (of course, this is only a feeling) as Clover now has executive experience (as Lord Mayor) and people may be unhappy with her decisions or how she manages things (eg her want to completely control Council annoys some people). It’s easy to be an independent MP advocating for residents. It is, of course, much harder to manage and make decisions in an uncertain environment.
Your idea about being “set-up” is strange. Voters want to know what candidates will do if they’re elected. The injecting centre is a live issue in the Kings Cross area. According to properly done surveys, the vast majority of local residents support it. If you’re in favour of it staying open, say so. If you’re in favour of it closing, say so. If you’re in favour of reviewing it using certain criteria. Say so. You havn’t actually said, to my knowledge, what your position on it is. Is your position a secret that you don’t want to reveal? If so, why would anyone vote for someone whose policies are secret?!
How would telling someone your ideas on the injecting centre constitute you being set-up? Do you think that you would be tricked into saying something, which is then printed somewhere, and that you’d be misquoted?
People in the Kings Cross area deserve to know what each candidate’s position on the injecting centre, and other issues, is. Puttin on my political scientist hat, I would recommend that voters not vote for any candidate who refuses to say openly what their position on any issue is.
The only way I can make sense of your fear of being set-up is that the official Liberal policy is to shut the injecting centre and you’re actually in favour of keeping it open and you’d lobby Peter Debnam to not close it. Is this true?
March 20, 2007 at 7:52 pm
That sound be “putting”, not “puttin”. I hate misspelling!
Any political candidate wishing to seriously contest seats in inner Sydney should of course do interviews with the local gay press. It’s a mistake not to.
March 20, 2007 at 8:45 pm
I think we all agree we don’t like drug dealers. If you or I were to deal tomorrow we would be arrested withing 5 minutes. Yet the regulars go about their business. We need to crack down on dealing at the street level. I would not like to see us turning back the clock to have people overdosing on the streets. We need to help people. I want to wait to see the report in October.
March 20, 2007 at 10:01 pm
“We ned to crack down on dealing at the street level. I would not like to see us turning back the clock to have people overdocing on the streets. We need to help people.”
Ah ha! I agree with this.
Dr Gordian (forget his last name) of the Emergency Dept at St Vincents hospital said in a meeting once that the dealers often get other people to physically deal the drugs – the dealers control it all by phone and so they don’t get caught. Nasty.
March 20, 2007 at 11:17 pm
Edward, your claim that voters are sick of Clover is garbage.
Clover is a meticulous local-issues politician, reflected in her steadily increasing vote and long-standing hold on office. In her time Clover has seen off all manner of pretenders, and I predict you will be another of those.
March 24, 2007 at 10:18 pm
Chris and Ed – you said, “Get ready for an upset.” I’m not upset, are you? Lose any $$ today? Back to coffee and more “listening” for you both.