Rudman blames C&R for selecting dying candidate

Aaron Bhatnagar has attacked City Vision for selecting a member of a community board for the Council by-election to replace Linda Leighton, as if their candidate wins it will trigger a coummunity board by-election which will cost $40K on top of the $90K for this by-election.

Brian Rudman claims this is hypocrisy as C&R are to blame for the $90K cost by selecting a gravely ill candidate who was unlikely to last the full term in office.

My first reaction is I wouldn’t want to be the person who tells a candidate they we have decided they can’t stand for office because we are worried we will be criticised for the cost of the by-election to replace them when they die.

On the other hand if it was known her life expectancy was weeks rather than months, then one can argue the decision wasn’t the most prudent.  However my experience with cancer sufferers is that sometimes they live on for months and even years past their expected prognosis.

Indeed since I started writing this, Aaron has blogged that it was only after the election that Leighton started to seriously deteriorate.