Dom Post on Nandor
The Dom Post gets onto the Nandor quitting story today. It’s a pity they didn’t acknowledge the Whoar blog as the source of the “speculation”. The story makes it fairly clear it is well beyond speculation incidentally:
Mr Norman confirmed that Mr Tanczos had approached the party leaders and caucus about the possibility of leaving but had made no firm decision yet.
Ms Fitzsimons said she would not ask Mr Tanczos to stay if he decided to leave.
Mr Norman praised Mr Tanczos’ service to New Zealand politics, regardless of what he decided to do. “Nandor’s made a tremendous contribution.”
Sounds like a eulogy to me. Incidentally one wrong detail in the story:
If Mr Tanczos does quit, the next person on the party list would normally take his place. Though there are two before Mr Norman – former MP Mike Ward and Catherine Delahunty – neither co-leader would deny suggestions the two would step aside to allow Mr Norman to enter Parliament, and boost the party’s profile, in the runup to the election. Mr Ward and Ms Delahunty could not be reached.
When a vacancy for a List MP occurs, the Chief Electoral Office has a two stage process to go through. First they check with the party secretary if the candidate is still a party member, and then they check if the candidate will accept the post.
In the case of Mike Ward, I suspect he is no longer a party member. If memory serves me correctly he announced he was supporting or joining National at the end of 2006.
My memory failed. I was confusing Ward with Ian Ewen-Street. Both from the same region.
January 5th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Ward joining/supporting National, sure you don’t mean Ian Ewen-Street.
Ward’s as a dyed in the wool yogurt-weaver as you can get. Nat Radio had a good mini-doco on him during his attempt at the Nelson mayoralty.
January 5th, 2008 at 9:47 am
“In the case of Mike Ward, I suspect he is no longer a party member. If memory serves me correctly he announced he was supporting or joining National at the end of 2006.”
Make that Ian Ewen-Street
January 5th, 2008 at 10:08 am
Oh yes you are right. Wrong Nelson/Marlborough area man. No wonder I could not find a reference on Google.
January 5th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Also an ideal time for the EC to check if tree Huggers Inc has 500 members.
January 5th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Sorry to nitpick, but Nelson and Marlborough are actually separate regions. Ewen-Street is from Marlborough and Ward is from Nelson.
And, btw, the Greens often claim to have 4000 members. While all political parties are liable to exaggerate, I don’t think there’s any reason to believe they’ve dropped below 500 (despite their silly and contentious support for the EFB).
Bryce
http://www.liberation.org.nz
January 5th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
I meant regions in a general geographic sense of the word than a specific unitary council.
I agree Greens will have more than 4,000 members. I’d love to see an audit done for United Future and Progressive.
January 5th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
“I’d love to see an audit done for United Future and Progressive.”
Are you saying membership is a private party matter?
[DPF: Yes, although the Electoral Commission can in confidence see who the 500 are]