Thanks
Well it has been a fun election campaign. The only thing better than seeing democracy in progress, is participating in it. Has been a mad five weeks. I doubt I’ve ever been busier in my life, but adrenaline is a wonderful thing to keep you going.
A long list of thanks to various people, in no particular order.
To Don, thanks for taking National from the 20s to the 40s. You’ve made this election the most competitive in recent history and you currently are leading the odds at Centrebet to become Prime Minister in a couple of weeks.
To Mark, has been the best getting to know you and your family. Your unfailing loyalty has been appreciated, and I can’t wait for you to be an MP. And damn it, we are going to have a hell of a lot of fun the next three years. Hopefully even in the next three days 🙂
To Steven, Greg, Jo and the team at HQ, congratulations on the best run campaign I can recall. And John – you are a legend for the billboards.
To all the people who have helped out in Wellington Central, thank you for your work and efforts. I am amazed at the number of people who will give up every spare hour for months on end to help out.
To Jordan, it has been surreal working together at InternetNZ, while helping run opposing campaigns as evidenced by our discussions yesterday about how we need to meet on Monday to plan for the half dozen meetings we need to manage next week. I’m glad it’s stayed friendly for almost all of the campaign, and that we are still on speaking terms. Looking forward to having a drink with you on Saturday, regardless of location.
To all the Wellington Central candidates, well done on your contributions to the election. I think it’s been a top class field of candidates ranging from experienced MPs like Stephen Franks to Bernard from the Libertarianz. I’ve immensely enjoyed the meet the candidate meetings.
To all the staff at Curia, thanks for your work over the last few months. Huge thanks especially to Katrina and Anna who took over much of the day to day management to free me up for the politics.
To my flatmate/squatter, big thanks for keeping me sane and actually making sure I didn’t exist solely off microwave meals.
To family and friends, thanks for understanding that when I don’t return your phone calls four times in a row, it isn’t because I now hate you, just that I’m busy.
To all the National Candidates I’ve met and worked with – full of admiration for your willingness to put it all on the line. And can’t wait for Caucus to hopefully double in size or so.
To the National MPs, thanks for not fucking anything up too badly 🙂
[Heh, in case my sense of humour offends anyone, I will elaborate. During a campaign MPs only get significant publicity (unless they are on the front bench) if they stuff up so to some degree, so the challenge is to stick to the script, work your butt off and just work 80+ hours a week supporting the team, for little publicity. A thankless task often]
To all the people who have sent me material, tip-offs, jokes, files – thanks. Keep it up!
And oh yeah to the people who are stupid enough to read this blog, and the even more stupid ones who post comments, thanks for visiting so often.
To Frog Blog, thanks for being such a good sport as we bait each other. It is great that whenever I am bored I can take a swipe at the Greens, and be guaranteed a response within a short period of time.
Oh and big cheers to the Young Nats and Young ACT guys and gals for their willingness to spoil photo opportunities for the Prime Minister. Great stuff.
Anyway that’s enough from me. Only a couple more posts today as I am actually gaining a social life back and going to see a Gilbert and Sullivan musical tonight.