With the results in it now appears that the ORP candidate, David Leyonhjelm has secured nearly 2% of the vote in the Penrith by-election.

David states:

    “That largely reflects the appeal of the party name. I ran three ads in a couple of local papers and the local media ran profiles of candidates, but I haven’t been to the electorate and didn’t do anything today.  Apart from a handful of shooters there, nobody knows anything about me personally.

    If the result was replicated state wide, it would be almost enough to ensure election to the Legislative Council. A vote of 2.5% would be enough. ….

    Gents, I think we are on the verge of breaking through.”

If we can get a slight improvement on this result in the Federal campaign it should, with preferences give our Senate candidate a great chance of getting there. This in turn would bring us the main thing we lack at the moment; press coverage. 30 years ago we were able to achieve this through the local papers however since then most of them seem to be relying less on local input as far as politics go. Local Editors no longer seem to have the independence of earlier years.

It is important to note the fact that the result seen here is from a relatively low profile campaign against well funded and well organised opponents who have large numbers to call on. With all hands on deck in the Federal election, and looking forward to the state one due in March we can be, as David said, “on the verge of breaking through.”

Congratulations, David.