Remember how Labour won the last election? There was the bogus eviction notice to state house tenants on National letterhead that saw a much higher turn our from state house tenants than is the norm. And then there was all that KFC. In balance around 50,000 more votes than expected came in from those so targeted.
Well as we and others have been reporting attempts to repeat this performance this time around are well underway.
But there has been an alarming development for Labour.
One of its initiatives in office has been the fostering of links with the Kiwi diaspora, the million or so New Zealanders who have fled offshore. And organisation Kiwi Expats Abroad has been established KEA and since 2004 it has been receiving significant Government support.
All has gone swimmingly until KEA made a big mistake. KEA was worried about the low number of expat New Zealanders voting at the last election (around 22,000) and decided to do something about it. It launched a campaign to get its members offshore to enrol for this election. And this campaign has been very successful. Three times as many offshore Kiwis are enrolled this time as in 2005. That suggests that three times as many are going to vote - say 60,000. Isn't that fantastic. Well done KEA. But hang on, which way are 90% of these people going to vote?? Are Owen Glenn and Laura Ede going to be voting Labour? What about Stephen Jennings? Cactus Kate? Kiwigirl in America "NZ election date announced as November 8. I really can't wait. If we have another four years of a Labour Government - I will have to shoot somebody. I just can't see how that could happen"
Houston, we have a problem........
