Greens use Wellington Central as part of new electorate strategy
Greens co-leader James Shaw won’t stand in the Wellington Central electorate at this year’s election and has swung his support behind a sitting councillor to be the party’s candidate.
James Shaw’s play in Wellington Central now the electorate is ‘open’ is a shrewd new electorate strategy based on Chloe’s incredible Auckland Central win and Tory Whanau’s very successful Wellington Mayoralty campaign.
They are playing the same strategy in Rongotai with Julie Anne Genter.
The Australian Greens have understood a developing electorate white anting tactic of overthrowing electorate majorities by adding middle class environmentalism with millennial voters and woke identity politics.
By serving up a local power like Tamatha Paul instead of parachuting in a stronger brand candidate, the Greens are clearly rewarding their activist base who have stepped up locally as leaders.
This could see a win for the Greens electorally in Auckland Central, Wellington Central and Rongotai, which is a smart play because the last polling from TVNZ and Newhub showed a weaker Green Party vote than many had picked.
The Greens still need to get their traditionally slack vote to engage and there is a danger that they will actually tread water and poll the same 8% (if not less) that they got in 2020.
The Greens are building deeper roots in previously Labour electorates that are gentrifying but not widening their appeal beyond the children of the middle classes.
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It’s quite shocking how far to the right the Greens are moving in all countries. If you want to see the end destination, just look at the German Greens — a very hawkish, pro-war, big business friendly party!
This is also the party who, whilst holding the Wellington Mayoralty, pulled down all the trolley wires, ending electric trolleybuses and tramways for good. “Green”, indeed!
Once they became a professionalised party, they were never interested in working class voters, and probably never will be. The parliamentary party was always a party of the moderately wealthy.
bah….the greens….too much woke shite and not enough focus on the stuff that really matters.