Voting is good. You get a Sausage Sandwich afterwards.

Hello there.

Apologies for the spacing of last weeks blog. I'm having some issues with the HTML. Why, oh why didn't I take I.T. in school?!

Anyway, this week it is awards time.
Bugger the ARIAs though, I've made my own.



The Election Advertising Awards

Celebrating Anti-Excellence in Election Advertising.



The "Flaming Mongrel" award goes to...
Val Jeffery, Community Alliance Party, Brindabella.

Val Jeffery runs the Tharwa General Store. He accuses anyone who comes into his store and is under 40 of theft. Mr. Jeffery could best be described as a yobbo. Or perhaps, given that he sounds like Alf from Home and Away, he could be described as a drongo instead.
In his T.V. advertisement, he says that the Stanhope Government is "a flaming disgrace".
Being approachable in an election campaign is a good strategy for any politician. However, looking as if you have dressed in a jumper older than some of your constituents, happened upon a studio and camera crew, and then decided to rant is perhaps not the best way to go about wooing voters.

The Crooked neck award goes to...
Richard Mulcahy, Canberra Party, Molonglo.

Richard Mulcahy used to be in the Liberal Party, but defected after the last election. His T.V. ads are nothing too special but for one thing; His head is held on his neck at an angle which makes it look as if he has misplaced the left side of his face. It's very distracting, and I'm not sure I could tell anyone what any of his policies are.

The annoying, arrogant, hand gesture award goes to...
Helen Cross, Independent, Molonglo.

Helen Cross had one of the most catchy lines of past elections. "Don't put a tick, don't put a cross, put a 1 next to Helen Cross." However, in her ad this campaign she waved her hand around when talking about how she was a "proven do-er" blah blah blah. It could just be me but it seemed arrogant. Even as I write this I realise how petty this sounds... Ah well.
*waves hand around*

The Give up already award goes to...
Burl Doble, Canberra Motorists Party, Brindabella.
Runner-Up: Steve Doszpot, Liberal Party, Brindabella.

The Motorist party ads were truly awful this campaign. They had toilet humour. One thing political parties don't usually want you to associate with them is toilets or anything that goes into them. It has nothing to do with their ads but this is Burl Doble's 3rd try at being elected as a MLA. Once as an Independent, once as a One Nation candidate and now with the Motorist party.
Another person trying to get elected after failing multiple times before is Steve Doszpot of the Liberals in Brindabella. At least he has only been a candidate of one party in his many tilts.

The Bad Idea award goes to...
Amanda Bresnan, Greens, Brindabella.

Unfortunately in her ad for the Greens Amanda Bresnan looks stoned. Someone should have given her some caffeine. Way to play the cliche of your party, dudes.

The insufferable cleverness award goes to...
Norvan Vogt, Community Alliance, Molonglo.

Vogt is pronounced "vote" so unsurprisingly Norvan Vogt worked this into his ads this election campaign. He seemed to think this was very clever. Using a good last name to your advantage, isn't clever, you are just lucky your name makes your ad memorable. He should just be glad that his surname isn't something more unfortunate.

The "Poet" and "Very Punny" awards go to...
The Liberal Party.

The Liberal party clearly had fun coming up with individual promotion lines for it's candidates this year. Here is a selection of them:

"Jac Lives Here" ~ Jacqui Myers
"A better fella for Brindabella" ~ David Morgan
"Vote for me, I'm Giulia with a 'G'" ~ Giulia Jones
"Doszpot for topspot" ~ Steve Doszpot
"Standing Tall for Gininderra" ~ Andrea Tokaji (who is very tall)
"Clinton, from the White House" ~Clinton White
"Zed Instead" ~ Zed Seselja.

Good Luck figuring out who to vote for Canberrans. If Steve Pratt gets in I may need an alcoholic beverage for once. But that is for another week.