Replacing Rod Donald

Generally I would wait longer before speculating on the political aspects of the Greens losing Rod Donald, but as there are front-page media stories on the issue, I guess it is fine.

There are four main roles for which the Greens need to find a replacement for Rod Donald. They are:

1) List MP
2) Co-Leader
3) Finance Spokesperson
4) Political ‘Director’

Taking them in turn:

1) List MP

Nandor Tanczos is next on the list. It is likely he will take it up, but he may have to decide soon. If the next person on the list was a new person, he might give way to them, but each of the next two after Nandor are not ideal. Mike Ward is 8th and he is a nice guy but with the Greens already having one of the older average ages in Parliament, bringing back a guy in his 60s would not help them with the youth vote. After Ward is the capable Catherine Delahunty, but if she came in then you would have only one male MP in the Caucus.

So 90% likely to be Nandor, with say a 10% chance they may jump down to Russel Norman at No 10. The more they think about it, the more Norman may make sense though. They were devastated to lose Nandor at the election, but the question now is the skill set needed to replace Rod Donald.

2) Co-Leader

If the Greens didn’t have their stupid gender quotas, they could just select the best person for the job, which in my eyes would be Sue Bradford. But their constitution says it has to be a male. Everyone agrees it will not be Keith Locke unless they have an electoral oblivion wish. Nandor is a possibility, but it will be a huge step up for him. The next male possibility is Russel Norman. Now they could make him a co-leader outside Parliament (with a guaranteed list place next election) but this is a full-time job so the Green Party would have to pay him a salary.

Jeanette has indicated she will probably retire next election. I expect her replacement would be Bradford or Turei. Thus it is important to have an experienced co-leader.

3) Finance Spokesperson

As much as the business community didn’t like Green policies, Donald did a good job in knowing the economic issues, and being able to speak credibly on such issues. There is no obvious successor for this important portfolio unless you go down to Roland Sapsford at No 15. As they need someone in Parliament the safe bet is probably to give it to Fitzsimons but they could try Bradford or Turei out with it.

4) Political ‘Director’

Donald was their main political strategist. He lived and breathed political campaigns. Again there is no obvious successor for this role unless ones goes down to Russel Norman at No 10 who was their national campaign manager.

It will be interesting to see what the Greens do. In their hearts they will instinctively want Nandor back (as reported here) but the more one looks at it, the more bringing in Russel Norman makes strategic sense – it solves both the leadership issue, and the political campaign experience issue.