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While Judith Collins loyalists lost their seats, her well-known critics in the Caucus have seen their personal bonus with voters rise over the weekend.
Denise Lee joined her parents in their retirement village in Maungakiekie to watch the rugby test on television. His mother baked a family favorite, cheese rolls. For failed electoral candidates, Sunday was an opportunity to lick their wounds; for successful candidates like Lee it was a long-awaited day off with family, before returning to work today.
Lynn Grieveson / Press room
The ups and downs of National’s loss: Judith’s Collin aide, Gerry Brownlee, lost his seat; her resurgent critic Denise Lee, right, increased her personal vote.
After rugby he went home to do the laundry. “I washed, again, the same pair of jeans that I’ve been wearing for about 19 weeks. Eek!”
He has spent a lot of time in meetings and on street corners for campaign candidates. But for most MPs, it has also been a good opportunity to come home from Wellington and focus on their constituencies.
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To be fair, Lee’s role as party spokesperson on Auckland affairs (previously a city councilor) has meant that she has been able to stay closely involved in local affairs.
He has carried out campaigns to improve road safety, security cameras and community patrols; coordinated 150 community volunteers from across the political spectrum to make more than 3,800 phone calls to seniors during the shutdown.
“I attend every meeting and stay until the end,” he says.
“Perhaps I would just say something else: the campaigns are completely unique because people open up and start talking to you. I have learned of hopes, horrors, loneliness and triumphs that confirm once again that I am in the job of my dreams.”
An unexpected lesson in civics
I took my three young children with me when I went to vote at the Onehunga Library and Community Center. We spent a good 15-20 minutes in the booth, trying to reach a consensus on the two electoral questions and the two referendum questions.
It was a geek civics lesson. The 5-year-old boy sat cross-legged on the worn gray carpet, looking bored, while the two older boys reflected with concern about the leaders’ pleas, the sanctity of human life, and mind-altering substances.
I was voting in Maungakiekie, where the boundary changes had attracted a part of the old red electorate of Mount Roskill (including our street). And with bad national polls across the country, things were not looking good for incumbent Denise Lee.
Worst of all, just at the beginning of the voting period, an email was leaked to other national MPs in which Lee criticized the “incredibly poor form” and “bad culture” of leader Judith Collins by ignoring her as a spokesperson. by announcing an investigation at Auckland City Council.
Yet anecdotally, the people I have spoken to in Maungakiekie, and indeed in New Zealand, seemed increasingly willing to distinguish their electorate vote from their party vote; the “two tick” campaigns of the big parties did not always have an echo.
For some, splitting their vote seemed like a way to put tribalism aside and instead acknowledge the work of different parties and candidates.
And surprisingly, as the tide was ebbing fast for National, Lee was one of the few to increase her personal vote this weekend, from 43.3 percent in 2017 to 44.4 percent this year.
Farah Hancock / Press room
Denise Lee at the ‘crash corner’ in Onehunga, where she successfully pushed for a roundabout to prevent accidents.
In particular, his personal vote was 64 percent better than the National party’s vote in Maungakiekie, this election. Others with high personal premiums were Mark Mitchell in Whangaparāoa (42%), Simon O’Connor in Tāmaki (41%), and former leader Todd Muller in Bay of Plenty (37%).
By contrast, perceived Collins loyalists like Chris Bishop and Collins MP Gerry Brownlee lost their seats, in Brownlee’s case, the previously unassailable Ilam.
National won just 26.8 percent, compared with Labor’s 49 percent; the result means that National will lose 20 MPs.
Despite being openly critical of the leader’s policy and strategic decisions over the past few days, both Mitchell and former leader Simon Bridges have ruled out any leadership offer today. “Absolutely not, it’s not on the table. It’s the furthest thing from my mind,” Mitchell said. Q + A Yesterday.
Bridges criticized the lack of direction in the party’s leadership, saying MPs had no idea what his campaign message was, but did not again point to any slants in the leader’s work.
Judith Collins responded by telling the media that National’s internal polls had the party as high as 39 percent prior to the second Covid-19 shutdown; He pointed to the party’s lack of discipline, particularly the leak of Lee’s email criticizing the leaders. “That breakout cost us five points,” Collins said.
Collins said there was no excuse if deputies did not know the party’s strategy and messages; daily emails were being sent to the candidates and it was Bridges’ fault if he was confused.
The strength of the Labor vote has been said to have been a personal endorsement of Jacinda Ardern’s leadership.
Was it also the case that the collapse of the National vote was a stinging indictment against Collins? Did voters punish Collins loyalists and reward the outspokenness of MPs who criticized her?
“I honestly don’t know,” says Lee. “The leftist tweeter talked about it a lot, but I never felt like it was something on the ground. I’d rather assume it was three years of hard work and consistency. Many, many people in our community don’t follow politics that closely.”
It appears that in the coming weeks, more members of National’s small group may choose to distinguish their personal political marks from those of Judith Collins.
A test for her will be the tone of MPs’ background reports before tomorrow’s caucus meeting and whether they demonstrate greater discipline when they emerge after the meeting.
No one publicly predicts an immediate challenge to Collins ‘leadership, but no one backs Collins’ promise to lead the party to the next election. She was a pinch hitter, entered at the last minute when there was no other option.
But his leadership does not seem like a sustainable solution to rebuild and unite a strong national party and group over the next three years.
Lynn Grieveson / Press room
Election advertisement at the ‘crash corner’ in Onehunga.
Back in Maungakiekie, Denise Lee is preparing to go to Wellington for the National Party caucus meeting on Tuesday. Once they finish saying goodbye to those who stayed on the road this weekend, there will be plenty of empty seats in the room.
Lee makes it clear that his focus, for now, is on his “dream job”: on the electorate and not on the cut and push of Wellington’s politics.
“For people across the political spectrum to think that I am approachable and approachable and that they can talk to me is the only mandate I will need,” he says. “We are creating a community together, one conversation at a time.
“The corresponding votes are just a bonus.
“I don’t know how my local life will ultimately translate into the cut and thrust of the national political scene, but I don’t care. It is who I am and I am not losing who I am to falsely seek a larger audience or score a point worthy of the media.
“The answers to what we face as a nation are here in Maungakiekie, they always have been.”
