Victorian State Election 2010: Ivanhoe
Electorate: Ivanhoe
Margin: Labor 10.4%
Upper house region: Northern Metropolitan
Federal: Jagajaga
Outgoing member: Craig Langdon (Labor)
Click here for Victorian Electoral Commission map
The candidates
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SMITH, Stephen
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Electorate analysis: Ivanhoe covers suburbs west of Plenty River about 15 kilometres north-east of the city, from Ivanhoe itself out to Heidelberg, Rosanna and View Bank. The electorate was created in 1945 and changed hands along with the changes of government in 1955 and 1982, thereafter behaving somewhat unusually in falling to the Liberals in 1985 and to Labor in 1996 (partly because a redistribution had weakened the Liberals’ position in the interim).
The victor in 1996 was Craig Langdon, a former Heidelberg councillor aligned with the Labor Unity (Right) faction. Langdon was defeated for preselection ahead of the coming election by factional colleague Anthony Carbines, a Banyule councillor, chief-of-staff to Education Minister Bronwyn Pike and son of upper house MP Elaine Carbines. Langdon complained at the time that Carbines had disregarded his offer to make the seat available to him after another term. Andrew Landeryou of VexNews put Carbines’ determination to take the seat sooner rather than later down to a prohibition on political staffers serving as councillors, instituted in the wake of the Ombudsman’s report into Brimbank Council.
Carbines went on to win the preselection vote by just one vote after the votes of the party’s Public Office Selection Committee were added to those from local branches, which favoured Langdon 71 votes to 46. Langdon vacated the seat in late August in what appeared to be a botched attempt to embarrass the government with a by-election, which did not in fact need to be held due to the proximity of the election.
The Liberal candidate is Carl Ziebell, a “sports science consultant” and personal trainer. There were earlier suggestions the endorsement might go to Jenny Mulholland, a high-profile Banyule councillor and former mayor who ran as an independent in 2006.
Analysis written by William Bowe. Read William’s blog, The Poll Bludger.