Labour’s Māori seat campaign chair Willie Jackson says having Tamati Coffey run in East Coast is a great catch for the party.
Mr Coffey was set to retire but put his name forward when incumbent Kiritapu Allen quit as candidate.
Mr Jackson says he has a real chance to retain the seat, and his experience winning and then losing Waiariki will help him both campaign for the general seat as well as support Cushla Tangaere-Manuel’s run in the overlapping Ikaroa Rawhiti seat.
“It’s a lot of work with a new candidate, you’ve got to do a bit of training unless the can just take to it – I mean Cushla’s just taken to it, she’s one out of 100 that one, but a lot of them will always need a lot of work and we don’t have that time, so that’s why Tamati is a great catch for us and an asset and a real chance to take that seat,” he says. National’s East Coast candidate is Gisborne-based communications professional Dana Kirkpatrick.
Source: Waatea News
