Prominent mayor set to stand in Adelaide
Labor is set to preselect Prospect mayor and Local Government Association president David O’Loughlin as its candidate for the Liberal-held seat of Adelaide in the March 2014 state election.
Labor’s state executive will finalise preselections on Monday morning and InDaily understands the highly-regarded O’Loughlin is the party’s favoured candidate to take on sitting member Rachel Sanderson.
While Sanderson will be difficult to dislodge, Labor is clearly hoping O’Loughlin’s candidature – at the very least – will cause the Liberals to refocus some of its precious campaign resources away from Labor marginal seats.
O’Loughlin was first elected Mayor of Prospect in 2006, and was re-elected in 2010. He started his term as President of the LGA this year.
You might like
He has long been touted in Labor circles as a future state or federal MP and is widely regarded as a competent mayor.
He will also have some campaign nous on his side – Mike Rann’s long-time adviser Jill Bottrall helped run his campaign for Prospect in 2006.
Sanderson defeated Rann government minister Jane Lomax-Smith at the 2010 state election with a huge swing of 14.7 per cent – the second biggest in the state.
Sanderson, who holds Adelaide with a margin of 3.9 per cent, is considered to be a diligent and highly visible local member.
InDaily is seeking comment from O’Loughlin.
Want to see more stories from InDailySA in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDailySA as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDailySA". That's it.
