Bathurst Regional councillor Jess Jennings will be the Country Labor candidate contesting the federal seat of Calare in 2019.
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This is the third time that Mr Jennings has put his hat in the ring for the seat, which has long been held by the National Party.
When he ran for election in 2016, he had to resign from Bathurst Regional Council, a point that stuck with voters when he ran for council again in 2017.
It was feared he wouldn’t stay the full term if given the opportunity to run at a state or federal level.
Mr Jennings said this time around he would stay put, as he understood he could legally hold both positions.
“I’ll be sticking as a councillor for the full term, regardless of what happens at the federal election,” he said.
“If I got voted in, I would sit as a councillor through the rest of the term.
“I certainly love being a councillor, so I would enjoy doing both jobs for a relatively short amount of time – basically 14 or 15 months – but whatever happens, I won’t be resigning from my council position in any circumstance.
“Even if the party asked me to, I would actually refuse.”
While he would stay on council, Mr Jennings said he would reduce his workload in other areas, and therefore withdraw from the Australian Milling Museum and suspend his consultancy business if elected.
Mr Jennings always said he would run for Calare three times, understanding that voters needed time to get to know people.
However, he is realistic about his chances of being elected, given the strong support for the Nationals.
“I don’t know that it is going to change in Calare, but you never can tell in politics these days,” Mr Jennings said.
“From what happened in the Orange by-election to Trump over in America, I don’t think anyone’s got any insight into what each election will hold.”
When asked what he could offer Calare, Mr Jennings said Labor would be putting millions of dollars into education and backing farmers during the drought.
“We’ve had a taste of what climate change induced drought can look like … farmers now have the choice, if they want more drought, vote for the National Party, if they want action against drought to reduce it, then vote for the Labor Party,” he said.
