So far it's been a little quiet on the Lyne (NSW) and Mayo (SA) fronts, which are tootling towards their respective federal by-elections without much comment.
Still that's bound to change once the election campaigns get started, though just how excited the rest of the country should get about the votes of a grand total of 185,534 people if they all bother to turn up at the polling booths on the 6th September 2008.
Just 10 months past the 2007 federal election, I for one am not particularly interested as I presume the status quo will prevail.
"The September 6 by-elections for
Mayo and
Lyne initially loomed as fizzers, with Labor showing no inclination post-Gippsland to test the waters in unwinnable seats. They have instead respectively emerged as mildly and enormously interesting, thanks to the entry of non-major party players. In Mayo, housing tycoon Bob Day will bring a cashed-up campaign to bear against the Liberals as the candidate of Family First, having failed to win Liberal preselection for Mayo after unsuccessfully contesting
Makin last year. Day would nonetheless have to be considered a long shot against Liberal candidate Jamie Briggs, but it’s a very different story in Lyne where independent state MP Rob Oakeshott has been rated the “clear favourite” by
Antony Green.
Imre Salusinszky of The Australian reports that Nationals polling puts his approval rating in the electorate at over 70 per cent, and says the party is concerned Labor will “direct resources to Mr Oakeshott’s campaign”."
In a U.S. presidential race which is turning into a same old, same old campaign, it was a bit of a laugh to peek at Barack Obama's official MySpace page.
