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Independent candidate for Ovens Valley, Tammy Lee Atkins is interviewed by a young school student. Photo: Wayne Jansson<\/p><\/div>\n
In Benambra there’s two independents giving it a red hot go, a seasoned campaigner and former Indigo Mayor, Jenny O’Connor and a young candidate with strong involvement in Voices 4 Indi, Jacqui Hawkins.<\/p>\n
Tim McCurdy holds Ovens Valley for The National Party but is facing fraud charges with police alleging he falsified documents relating to the sale of two dairy farms. The matter will be back in court early next year and if he holds the seat, raises the possibility of a by-election just weeks after the state election.<\/p>\n
Local senior Liberal, Helen Senior wrote to members<\/a> urging them to vote for McCurdy as the fastest way to have a shot of winning the seat:<\/p>\n I really urge you to Vote 1, Tim McCurdy our coalition partner,\u201d Mrs Senior writes.<\/p>\n If he is defeated, it will be 4 years before the Liberal Party get the chance to run a candidate and we will be no better off \u2014 most likely worse.<\/p>\n It is possible that things may turn out in the new year of a by-election in Ovens Valley. We will be able to run a (Liberal) candidate earnestly, and win.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In a seat that Federally fell to a community based independent, the Liberal Party are campaigning for Party before people. It’s hard to describe the level of stupidity it takes for a senior local Liberal to suggest that strategy in an email to members, in a region historically rife with factional infighting and wars between Coalition partners.<\/p>\n For Atkins, the one and only question mark in my mind is her ability to take enough progressive votes from the Greens and Labor to ensure she’s in the final round of preference allocations – if she can, she’ll be hard to hold out.<\/p>\n Atkins has a substantial slab of McGowan’s campaign grunt behind her, a\u00a0notable inclusion in Atkins team is McGowan’s campaign manager, Phil Haines.<\/p>\n A lot was rightly written about the McGowan young guns of Indi in 2013, I came away from that election with, Haines firmly planted in my mind as a brilliant campaign strategist and the driving force behind the whole show.<\/p>\n While he’s not her campaign manager, Sue Gold is, his experience and cool head will be a great advantage to her campaign.<\/p>\n The battle cry in both Ovens Valley and Benambra is overwhelmingly make the seat marginal, which is not dissimilar to McGowan’s 2013.<\/p>\n Atkins told No Fibs:<\/p>\n Since 2013, we’ve been talking about doing politics differently. People have discovered the power of their vote, the power of voting differently, the whole concept of if you keep doing the same thing you’re going to get the same result.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n North East Victoria has long been a stronghold of the conservative party’s and the feeling is this has resulted in decades of neglect.<\/p>\n In an extraordinary intervention in the Benambra campaign, local doctors and sporting codes made public calls for people to vote strategically to make the seat marginal.<\/p>\n This intervention is likely to have an impact in Ovens Valley also, The Border Mail is the main regional newspaper and large parts of the electorate get their TV from Albury\/Wodonga.<\/p>\n Atkins:<\/p>\n The possibility of change here is very much alive, you can feel it on the street, it’s the conversations our volunteers are having.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In a sure sign the Nationals are gripped by panic in Ovens Valley, today they placed a last minute attack ad in the Wangaratta Chronicle.<\/p>\n Quite an attack ad on @TammyLeeAtkins<\/a>, independent candidate for Ovens Valley in the Wang Chronicle. #OVvotes<\/a> #vicvotes<\/a>. A seat to watch….. pic.twitter.com\/tpgfTVgYbm<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Gay Alcorn (@Gay_Alcorn) November 22, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n