Andrew Lewis: A Spoiler Candidate?

Today I have a guest posting on Andrew Lewis standing in St Helier by Deputy Sam Mezec.

For Daniel Wimberley’s guest post, see here
http://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2014/08/today-i-have-guest-posting-on-former.html

And for my posting, see
http://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2014/08/why-andrew-lewis-wants-to-stand-in-st.html

I’m not wholly convinced by Sam’s argument, as I think a certain amount of political desire has to do simply with what C.S. Lewis called the desire to be part of “The Inner Ring”. Once inside, part of the decision makers, the loss of that is something which I think many politicians find very hard to give up. I suspect the coming election will see a number of former politicians who have failed to be re-elected also return to the fray. Having once been part of the States decision making process, they simply cannot bear to be outside of it. It can be far harder to walk away, as Deputy Wimberley did, than to stand again.

But let the reader decide...

Andrew Lewis: A Spoiler Candidate?
By Deputy Sam Mezec

I completely agree with the former Deputy Daniel Wimberley. He says he is astounded that Mr Lewis is putting himself up for election on this basis.

Here's my theory -

Ordinary Jersey voters in St Helier are primarily concerned about issues that directly affect them like cost of living, employment and improving the quality of life for town dwellers.

On all of those subjects Deputy Mike Higgins will have excellent policies and be able to articulate sensible and captivating ways to solving those issues.

The purpose of Andrew Lewis standing is to try and distract Deputy Higgins from making those arguments and instead focus his campaign on the suspension of Graham Power which, to most voters, is ancient history that they don't care about.

In short - it's an attempt to sabotage Deputy Higgins re-election campaign by dragging him away from a message that connects with voters.

Mike Higgins is one of the hardest working members of the States and a real thorn in the side of the Council of Ministers. The Council of Ministers clique (Ozouf, Bailhache, Gorst etc) hate St Helier because it is the place where people like Deputies Higgins and Southern get elected. That's why they support a continuation of gerrymandering in our electoral system.

If they can get rid of Higgins, it will be a godsend to them and make their jobs far easier to do without worrying about any meaningful scrutiny.

Throwing Lewis into St Helier 3/4 (he can't stand in St John because Tracey Vallois is going to win by a landslide, I predict) is a typical Establishment Party campaign tactic.

Mike Higgins is not a member of Reform Jersey, but we support all the hard work he does and virtually all of his policies. We are putting a candidate up in district 3/4 and hope that voters will use only two of their votes, one for Mike and the other for our candidate.

Jersey politics needs more people with integrity like Mike, and far fewer people like Lewis with a very questionable history serving the people of Jersey.