Electoral Candidates
We need electorate candidates now and for 2017 general election
Are you a potential candidate?
Do you know someone we should ask?
Do you have advice for us in choosing, mandating candidates?
General discussion of candidates
Martyn Wed 21 Dec 2016 9:33PM
I'll definitely put my hand up for consideration as a candidate.
@fredlook Do we have an Excel sheet with all the General and Maori Electorates on them, so we can keep track of potential candidates in the different electorates? What are the rules on where a candidate can stand for an electorate? For example I'm enrolled in West Auckland but I'm currently living in Botany, do I have to stand in West Auckland or can I stand in Botany?
@grantkeinzley what attributes and skills do you think a candidate needs to have? What basic steps does a candidate need to take to prepare for contesting for a seat? What resources does a candidate need to succeed? What were the things that you think could have been improved on in your attempt at the seat?
Grant Keinzley Fri 23 Dec 2016 7:34AM
On attributes good public speaking ability is a must and excellent fast thinking debate skills. One personal attribute that got me a long way was getting out to meet the people. All politicians do this I know but doing it well as one of the people rather than "Hi I am your politician" really works.
On basic steps the Internet Party team will prep all of that for you and walk you through it.
Resources, or tools to succeed? On resources a car, a tonne of gas money, cafe money, hotel money etc is what kept me occupied. Lived on Twitter to keep up with news events, constantly talked to press secretary for advice for each debate, interview, and candidate challenge, and mostly family support was a big help. When you can get up in front of a croud a smile with "Sorry for looking disheveled missus wouldn't let me leave until I had finished my greens." you'll always get a smile.
On tools you'll the Internet Party will equip you with what you need including pre election training.
On improvements there was only one bug bare that I had with the 2014 elections, we did not have enough candidates. I think we had around 17, not nearly enough in my opinion.
Hope that helps @martyn
Fred Look Thu 22 Dec 2016 6:56PM
@martyn you can read it here http://www.elections.org.nz/candidate-handbook
Fred Look Thu 22 Dec 2016 7:09PM
@martyn I can not see any electoral rule why you could not stand in the upcoming Mt Albert by-election http://www.elections.org.nz/events/2017-mt-albert-election-0/mt-albert-election-timetable , Of course this is just my opinion , the next step would be to declare an intention to the Exec committee and they would have to decide if
1 its a good idea
2 you are suitable
if you up for that then we need to get started
Daymond Goulder-Horobin Fri 23 Dec 2016 2:46AM
I think Martyn Wanted to stand in Botany, but would be interesting if anyone wanted to have a crack at Mt Albert. :star:
Fred Look Fri 23 Dec 2016 4:12AM
Yes a candidate in mt albert would get things moveing
Martyn Fri 23 Dec 2016 11:56AM
Thanks @grantkeinzley appreciate the info. By the way did you get debriefed about your experiences after the election? What speaking engagements did you have to attend? Did you debate people? How was dealing with interviews and the media?
Hey @fredlook I don't think I would be the best fit for the Mt Albert by-election, I've only ever traveled through it on the way to somewhere else and have no idea what it's like to live there. What benefit would it be to the party if we stood someone in the by-election? Do we want to try and win it or just have somebody stand to get exposure for the party?
@daymondgoulderhorobin I'd definitely put my hand up to contest the Botany electorate. I'd definitely lose though looking at the results for Botany from the last election. National gained about 4k votes from the 2011 election while Labour stayed relatively the same and the Conservative party got 3k, which is pretty good seeing as that was the first time they contested that Electorate. I'd need to steal 11k votes from National, which is a pretty big ask. I'm up for it though!
Grant Keinzley Fri 23 Dec 2016 10:45PM
@martyn
On debriefing yeah there was a lot of communications that went on after the elections. A lot of people misunderstand the processes of what is involved with candidacy within an election campaign and there is still a lot of legalities to climb through for all candidates MP's or not after an election campaign.
On engagements I was surprised by the varied array of speaking opportunities that opened up when the election campaign was in full swing. Some examples are speaking alone to groups such as the elderly in rest homes. Another is candidate challenges in which all prospective candidates are involved in a public debate. Then there are the media/press interviews to speak on their chosen topics either for TV or radio. Then there are the meet-ups that your captains will organise where the public can come and speak to you in person with their own questions not belonging to a particular agenda. Honestly I was run off my feet trying to keep up with it all.
On debates yes I did but......
I had my own approach to all of that. I didn't want to be seen as just another politician as to say not to be seen as an old school politician. We were anew party with new ideas and inspirations so I attacked debates with humour and preferred to engage the audience with humour thus bringing my opponents down with the shame of being laughed at rather than attacking them with my own arguments. One example the Nat guy was boasting about how good a job he had done during the last term. I replied without fighting back but instead told a story of how one day I drove through Whanganui and it must have been dole day for the mentally ill and all I saw looked like it fell right out of an American horror movie; a misty morning and a street filled with half incapacitated people, it was a "Zombie Town". This got a lot of laughter so then I concluded with "Yeah mate you have done a great job last term". Now when it was his turn to speak again the audience followed on from my claims and went ballistic at the guy with all the arguments about how they saw his term and the debate was called to a stop by the adjudicator due to the raucous. That was how I handled debates. :)
On Media I have a lot of respect for reporters / journalists and as such always treated them so. I never had a problem with them and found it in my favour to befriend rather than to control. It is easier to get through an interview if it is a friend interviewing you.
Martyn Mon 2 Jan 2017 11:52PM
Happy New Year everybody!
That's definitely a lot of help @grantkeinzley! I'm not sure if we have the same Party infrastructure as we did during the last election, to be honest I'm pretty sure we don't, so when you were talking about getting prepped by the Internet Party team in the last election in your first post I don't think that's going to be happening in the same way this election.
Can you tell me how long your preparation for standing in the Election took? Any other information you think would be relevant for people standing as a Candidate?
@fredlook has anybody outside of the loomio crew contacted you about standing as a Candidate for the Party? Have any of the other former Candidates emailed you about standing again?
Grant Keinzley · Wed 21 Dec 2016 1:17AM
Grant Keinzley ex candidate for IP Taranaki-King Country electorate. I wont be able to take up the position again but am happy to mentor a new candidate for this electorate. I can recommend my captain from last election as a potential as he was a great asset; Micheal Riley should he be interested.