Transtasman Campaign Winners and Losers

Transtasman rates the campaigns:

Campaign Winners And Losers

Winston Peters: Harder to kill than Rasputin, but his number looks up. Often truculently silly (eg the helicopter business). So no win, or No, Win.

The Maori Party: Looks like hanging onto its four seats but may not add any more. They’ve done OK, but not as well as they were expected to.

The Greens: The billboard campaign “vote for us” was outstanding. They will pick up a lot of disaffected Labour voters. Light bulbs, water pressurre and how to bring up your kids also featured. A couple of extra MPs at least look likely.

Peter Dunne? A good Minister of Revenue: his strength and his weakness. Such types seldom build lasting political forces. Will be able to hold Caucus meetings in front of his mirror as he does his spectacular hair.

ACT? Toned down the flakiness we’ve seen over recent years, but still ran an erratic campaign. May peel some votes off the right of National on the back of law and order issues. Three seats, max.

Labour/Helen Clark: Can’t see a belt without hitting below it. Too much rhetoric about what happened 15, 20, 25 years ago. A nasty, negative campaign unworthy of the party’s better side.

National/John Key: Did two winning things: after a shaky start he shed the smart-alecky 6th former demeanour he often adopts, and he refused to get into the gutter with Clark. Best line: Rich is when you can payyour credit cards and your power bill.

A nasty, negative campaign indeed.