One week into the official campaign period for the South Australian election, no indications have emerged to discourage the conventional wisdom that Mike Rann’s Labor government will easily secure a second term. Labor has had a clear two-party preferred lead in all published polling since it came to office (barring one aberrant Newspoll result from [...]
Reflections on the Miracle of Democracy at Work in the Greatest Nation on Earth
Monthly Archives: February 2006
SA campaign updates: episode one
Friday, February 24, 2006 – 12:25 pm
Welcome to the first in the Poll Bludger’s series of electorate-level fact bites from the South Australian campaign. Hopefully I will also find time over the weekend to step back and assess the bigger picture three weeks out from polling day – Tasmanian campaign coverage will probably have to wait until next week.
Hammond (Independent 2.3% [...]
Polls: this, that and the other
Wednesday, February 22, 2006 – 11:04 am
Today’s Advertiser carries two interesting electorate level polls with impressive samples of around 550 voters, which provide support for two items of conventional wisdom about the coming South Australian election – that the Rann government will win a handsome majority, and that quirky independent MP Peter Lewis is gone for all money in Hammond. [...]
Puttin’ on the writs
Tuesday, February 21, 2006 – 12:52 pm
Mike Rann formally initiated the South Australian election campaign yesterday when he advised Governor Marjorie Jackson-Nelson to issue the writs, which he had delayed until the second last day possible. This is not greatly remarkable given that the election was fixed for March 18 in any case, but it nonetheless attracted censure from The Advertiser [...]
A walk in the Park
Saturday, February 18, 2006 – 11:15 pm
As if two state elections on one day wasn’t enough, the by-election for Geoff Gallop’s old seat of Victoria Park in Western Australia will be held one week earlier, on March 11. The poll has attracted a cricket team of 11 candidates, not all of whose reputations precede them. Further detail may be added to [...]
Why stop at one
Saturday, February 18, 2006 – 4:39 pm
Regular readers will be aware that the Poll Bludger was hoping Tasmanian Premier Paul Lennon would hold off on an early election, in contrast to widely held expectations, so the campaign would not clash with that for South Australia (which will formally begin when Premier Mike Rann instructs the Governor to issue the writs, which [...]
The crow flies
Wednesday, February 15, 2006 – 1:12 am
Thirty-one days out from polling day, and a month later than promised, the Poll Bludger’s guide to the March 18 South Australian election is finally in business. All 47 lower house seats have been gone through with a fine-tooth comb, with a separate upper house guide hopefully to follow later in the campaign.
This guide is [...]
Mackerras versus McGauran
Monday, February 6, 2006 – 10:54 pm
The earlier post on Senator Julian McGauran’s defection from the Nationals to the Liberals generated a productive discussion in comments, in sad contrast to subsequent efforts fingering the entrails of the WA Labor Party. Professor Malcolm Mackerras, recent recipient of the Office of the Order of Australia for services to psephology, offers an erudite contribution [...]
Blokes on top
Friday, February 3, 2006 – 1:45 pm
Wednesday night’s ALP preselection for Geoff Gallop’s seat of Victoria Park did not pan out as predicted in the previous item, with Ben Wyatt taking the prize after a vote of the party’s 14-member Administrative Committee. Wyatt is a Director of Public Prosecutions lawyer and director of Indigenous Business Australia, and his father Cedric Wyatt [...]
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