So the lovely Mita Harris has been selected for Mangere. While I am glad he has won favour again for his loyalty to the party, why on earth allow him to suffer a candidate suicidal experience there. Mangere is a Pacific peoples stomping ground - for second and third generation grandchildren of the original Pacific settlers. Since David Lange a candidate who does not have Pacific heritage has no hope of success in a campaign there. I did hear that Enosa Auva'a threw his oar into the blend for Mangere and he would have been more appropriate. There will be no battle for Mangere at election time. Right now it is securely in the hands of Labour's Su'a William Sio who has demonstrated at a local level that he is more than capable of handling the bigger tasks. Recently I listened to him asking Luamanuvao Winnie Laban a few of those contrived questions that party members ask each other when the answer is always a given "yes we did well". There is no doubt that in time Su'a will surpass Luamanuvao in party rankings who I think lacks that ground breaking presence and punch that we all hope our Pacific candidates will have at the national level.
Back to Mita Harris - I hope National has signed up a large loyal group of Pacific party members to support this young man in his campaign because clearly he will need it. Campaigning life in foreign territory can be very lonely and expensive.
