WE are just over one week into the official race for Calare and already the candidates’ tactics are becoming quite clear.
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Labor’s Jess Jennings, who already has a few years of campaigning for the seat under his belt, has still been the most active of the local candidates.
He was the first to bring in outside help from the party, with opposition spokesperson for digital innovation and start-ups Ed Husic visiting the Bathurst region last week to discuss jobs and economic development opportunities.
And Dr Jennings says he has plenty more Federal MP visits planned between now and July 2.
Nick Xenophon Team candidate Rod Bloomfield is again bringing his party leader to the region with a VIP meet and greet planned in Orange on Sunday.
It will be Mr Xenophon’s second visit to the Central West in recent weeks and Mr Bloomfield is certainly banking on the senator’s star power to boost his vote.
The Greens’ Delanie Sky also got her campaign off and running yesterday, campaigning on health in Orange.
But the quietest of the candidates so far has been the Nationals’ Andrew Gee – and that is probably little wonder.
The seat of Calare is realistically Mr Gee’s to lose and a cynic might suggest he has little to gain by putting his head above the parapet.
He has inherited a safe seat that would require a swing in the order of 15 per cent to change hands and nobody can see that happening.
Having already won the major battle in his bid to make it to Canberra – that is, the Nationals preselection ballot – Mr Gee now seems content to sit back and let the votes roll in.
It’s a safe strategy, and perhaps even a sensible strategy, but it’s a disappointing strategy from the man likely to be our next federal member.