Handicapping races - Wellington:
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008
Now I am patriotic enough to happily admit that I am a Southerner. My knowledge of the South Island seats is first-hand, but in the North I must rely on more second-hand information. Keeping that in mind (and apologies for any seats I have left out) –
Wellington Central: This will be an interesting seat to watch to see if National can make serious inroads into the inner-city electorates that have been Labour bastions. Wellington Central was a National Party seat, before the National candidate was (for lack of a better word) screwed in 1996 to gift the seat to Richard Prebble. When Prebble retired the seat was won by Labour, who have held it since. Neither major party candidate from 2005 is standing this year, and National has put up former ACT MP Dr Stephen Franks.
