McCarten for Labour?

Vernon Small writes:

Labour is poised to announce lead roles in David Cunliffe’s office and a new election campaign manager, with former Alliance president Matt McCarten tipped to be in the running for a top post with his old rivals.

Oh I do hope this is correct. If so, I can’t wait for the next time Labour campaigns on tax avoidance and people or companies not paying their fair share of tax.

Other names mentioned in party circles for the pivotal role, as Labour tries to regroup after a run of bad poll results, included Mr Cunliffe’s top electorate official Greg Presland and a number of former MPs from both Labour and the Alliance.

So it may be a choice between someone who blogs at The Daily Blog or who blogs at The Standard. A choice between the far left and the far far left. Wonderful.

They saw him as a good fit for the party, combining parliamentary experience, Left-wing credentials and the ability to deal with the tensions between the party and caucus members – a key cause of stress for Ms Brandon.

Matt’s a good operator and I rate him. It is worth mentioning though that when he was Alliance President the tension between party and caucus led to a split and the death of the Alliance. To be fair to Matt though, I blame Anderton 95% for that as he wanted to become effective dictator.

Meanwhile, former Labour researcher Dave Talbot, who works for the party’s pollsters UMR Research, is set to be named as the party’s general election campaign manager.

Talbot worked for Labour under Phil Goff, off memory.