Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings has confirmed March 15 as her government’s date with the polls, which for the second successive occasion means a super Saturday on which elections are held in both Tasmania and South Australia. My most recent poll aggregate chart is featured below, encompassing the crudely bias-adjusted results of 14 EMRS and four ReachTEL polls.
UPDATE (17/1): Kevin Bonham and Ben Raue at The Tally Room have typically excellent reviews of the situation, complete with candidate overviews and such. My own overview will appear in Crikey later today.
My candidate guide now has question marks next to eight PUP candidates.
http://kevinbonham.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/2014-tasmanian-state-election-candidate.html
Their names were released in an otherwise unheralded video that a few PUP supporters were linking to on Twitter yesterday. I investigated the background to one of them and found a Google trainwreck suggesting due diligence failure by PUP in selecting this candidate. As the candidate had apparently published anti-gay material, I published his Google trainwreck. The video listing the eight candidates has now been taken down.
Oh but now it’s back up again at a different URL.
http://kevinbonham.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/libs-reachtel-not-completely-over-line.html
Libs’ ReachTEL: Not Completely Over The Line
An internal ReachTEL the Liberals have released is the first Tasmanian state poll for some time that shows the outcome in any doubt at all.
My Mark Grewar piece has hit the local limelight:
These from ABC:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-03/pup-candidate-defended/5235882?section=tas
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-03/palmer-united-party-defends-state-poll-candidate-over-social-me/5235278
This one from Sally Glaetzer (Mercury) is more in-depth and includes the candidate’s responses/excuses:
http://www.themercury.com.au/news/tasmania/pup-candidate-mark-grewar-in-liberal-party-firing-line/story-fnj4f7k1-1226817089752