ACT and Banks

John Banks was a star of the ACT Conference at the weekend, but also made them somewhat nervous and annoyed about his style.

There are some pretty significant pros and cons of having Banks stand for ACT. Off the top of my heard, they are:

Pros
* May significantly increase party vote in Auckland
* Would generate publicity for ACT
* Possibly could win a seat (Very doubtful in my opinion, and I give no credence to talks of internal polls where they will not reveal the company name, questions asked, methodology and results)
* At 2% one tries anything, as you can only go up
* Banks is more fondly thought of, since Hucker became Mayor

Cons
* Banks is not a liberal, and ACT do brand as the liberal party
* Banks is not really a team player, unless he leads the team
* There may be a backlash if Ken Shirley is pushed aside from Tamaki
* Giving Banks a winnable list place would almost certainly be at the expense of a current MP
* Refuses to deny he would like to be leader
* Banks may put off more voters than he attracts

Overall I think Banks as a candidate would help ACT increase their chances this election, but I think they would find after the election that they would have some significant management problems with Caucus, and they may find their long-term liberal brand permanently damaged.

John Armstrong as usual has some good comments.