THE POLL BLUDGER

EASTERN METROPOLITAN

Eastern Metropolitan extends from the outer Melbourne suburb of Eltham in the north through the middle suburbs of Doncaster, Mitcham and Ferntree Gully, south to Rowville. This covers all of the old province of Koonung and three-quarters of Silvan and Templestowe, all of which were traditional Liberal strongholds that fell to Labor in 2002. The remaining component district is the Liberal seat of Box Hill from the old East Yarra province, which was narrowly retained by the Liberals. Both Silvan members have come to drink driving-related grief during the current term. Liberal member Andrew Olexander had to pay $50,000 for damage to cars he hit driving through Port Melbourne at 5am, an incident which drew attention to the question of his place of residence – officially in Ringwood East, though he evidently spent a lot of time at his Docklands apartment. He again nominated for preselection in November 2005, but was unable to secure so much as fourth place. Labor's Carolyn Hirsh, whose parliamentary career began in 1985, was twice forced to resign from the party following separate drink driving incidents, having been readmitted in the interim. The top places on the Liberal ticket have gone to sitting Liberal members for Koonung and East Yarra; Bill Forwood, former party upper house leader and member for Templestowe, is retiring. Labor's ticket is a clean sweep of newcomers: their sitting members for Koonung (Helen Buckingham) and Templestowe (Lidia Argondizzo) only had enough muscle to secure seats in 2002 that would normally have been considered unwinnable, and they have respectively had to make do with third place on the ticket and the lower house preselection for Doncaster.

The Liberal ticket is headed by Richard Dalla-Riva, a former fraud squad detective and business development manager. Dalla-Riva won preselection to replace retiring Kennett government minister Mark Birrell as member for East Yarra province in 2002, ahead of Geoff Hayes (now the party's candidate for Ballarat East) and Di Rule (who lost her seat of Seymour in 1999 and stood unsuccessfuly for Burwood in 2002). Dalla-Riva won his seat by 1.4 per cent, outperforming party colleague David Davis in the concurrent election for the other East Yarra seat. He was immediately appointed Liberal spokesperson on corrections, and now holds the shadow scrutiny of government and manufacturing and export portfolios. Dalla-Riva's success in securing the top position ahead of Bruce Atkinson was seen as a defeat for then-leader Robert Doyle and his allies in the Kroger-Costello faction.

As member for Koonung province since 1992, Bruce Atkinson is a relative Liberal parliamentary veteran. He is still best remembered for the controversy that engulfed him in 1997, when it was revealed he had earned more than $30,000 for local government consultancy work since entering parliament. The opposition launched an unsuccessful legal action to have his seat declared vacant and a by-election held, on the grounds that the constitution forbade MPs from having commercial dealings with the Crown. After the Liberal defeat in the Mitcham by-election that December, Atkinson relinquished his role as parliamentary secretary for planning and local government, ostensibly because he wanted to spend more time in his electorate. Atkinson enjoyed a reversal of fortune after the 2002 election result diminished the Liberal talent pool, becoming small business spokesman and further acquiring sport and recreation in January 2004. A further promotion came with the addition of the WorkCover portfolio in the December 2005 reshuffle, which party critics of Robert Doyle criticised as an effort to reward those who were propping him up.

Third on the ticket is Jan Kronberg, a marketing lecturer at Box Hill Institute. During the preselection campaign, embattled incumbent Andrew Olexander had accused Kronberg of breaching the party constitution by appearing as a "diet success story" in an ad for a local gym.

The Labor ticket is headed by Shaun Leane from the Left faction Electrical Trades Union; according to Ewin Hannan of The Australian, he won the position as part of a deal with the Right to get the union's support for Bill Shorten's Maribyrnong preselection. In August, Meaghan Shaw and Michael Bachelard from The Age reported that Leane's rent was being paid by union members to help him meet the party's requirement that candidates live in the seats for which they are preselected.

Second on the ticket is Brian Tee, an adviser to Attorney-General Rob Hulls; unlike his boss, he is a member of the Left rather than the Right and is said to have won preselection with the support of the AMWU. Tee was raised and educated in Perth, where he worked for three years as a solicitor before moving to Melbourne at the age of 26 in 1995. He subsequently worked for the LHMWU and as an industrial lawyer before he became senior adviser to Hulls in 2003.

Labor's member for Koonung, Right faction member Helen Buckingham, was only able to secure the undesirable third place on the ticket. After her preselection defeat, Buckingham complained that she and Elaine Carbines had been demoted because they did not "belong to unions that have a bloc of votes". She withdrew as a candidate in September citing ongoing health concerns following her successful treatment two years ago for bone marrow cancer. Her replacement is Andrew McKenzie, a member of the Socialist Left and adviser to Aged Care and Aboriginal Affairs Minister Gavin Jennings. McKenzie had previously been the party's assistant state secretary from 1994 to 2000. His father, David McKenzie, was member for the since-abolished federal seat of Diamond Valley from 1972 to 1975.

The Greens ticket is headed by Bill Pemberton, whom the party website describes as "a self-employed sustainable housing consultant active in the Manningham area". Pemberton previously ran in Deakin at the 2004 federal election. Fortuitous preference arrangements have also put the Australian Democrats and People Power into contention: their respective candidates are Craig Beale, who ran for the federal seat of Melbourne Ports in 2004, and Karin Orpen, a financial planner and Knox councillor.

EASTERN VICTORIA

Eastern Victoria extends from the eastern hinterland of Melbourne through Gippsland to the New South Wales border, with the Great Dividing Range as its northern boundary. It covers the entirety of the abolished provinces of Gippsland and Western Port, the latter of which replaced the abolished South Eastern at the 2002 redistribution. The balance includes one district each from Central Highlands, Eumemmering and Silvan. Western Port/South Eastern was traditionally a strong seat for the Liberals, until Labor's Geoff Hilton defeated Cameron Boardman (previously the member for Chelsea province, which had been redistributed in Labor's favour) by 403 votes in 2002; Gippsland was won by the Nationals when they contested in 2002 and 1996, and by the Liberals when they did not in 1992 and 1999. The Liberal ticket is headed by their member for Gippsland, Philip Davis, and rounded out by newcomers following the retirement of South Eastern MLC Ron Bowden. Lacking for members in the area, and constricted by the cut in upper house numbers, Labor has contentiously put three metropolitan members at the top of its ticket: Matt Viney from Chelsea province, Johan Scheffer from Monash and Glennys Romanes from Melbourne.

Matt Viney is a former Frankston mayor who came to fame as Labor's candidate for Frankston East at the 1999 election. Viney's incumbent Liberal opponent Peter McLellan died on the morning of election day, leading to a suspension of the poll and a supplementary election for the seat on October 17. By then it had become apparent that the Coalition had failed to win a majority, and Viney's 4.9 per cent win from an 8 per cent swing ended Jeff Kennett's slim hope of holding on to power. It was later alleged that two of Viney's electorate officers had offered to pay for an independent candidate to print how-to-vote cards in exchange for his preferences; another candidate emerged with similar claims against the Liberal Party. Viney was immediately appointed to a parliamentary secretary position upon entering parliament, but stood down for several months in early 2002 pending investigation of claims he received and passed on confidential information about a Frankston council tendering process. The abolition of Frankston East at the redistribution ahead of the 2002 election put him at the centre of a factional dispute in which elements of the Right unsuccessfully resisted the Left's efforts to accommodate him in the upper house seat of Chelsea. After the election he was appointed parliamentary secretary for innovation and industry.

Johan Scheffer (who formerly travelled as John Scheffer) was an adviser to Socialist Left minister Gavin Jennings when he pulled off a surprise 1.7 per cent win in Monash province at the 2002 election. He had won preselection ahead of Port Phillip councillor and former mayor Dick Gross, who had the backing of Health Minister John Thwaites' Independents faction. Scheffer has secured a safe seat at the expense of factional colleague Glenyys Romanes, a former Brunswick mayor and member for Melbourne province since 1999. Romanes has been Labor's upper house whip since the 1999 election win, but rose no further.

The Liberal ticket is headed by Philip Davis, member for Gippsland province since 1992, shadow minister since 1999 and upper house Opposition Leader since the 2002 election. In December 2001 Davis stood down from the front bench, saying he needed to focus on his electorate; however, The Age reported Liberal sources saying he was peeved by then-leader Denis Napthine's failure to support his recent bid to become upper house deputy leader. The loss of Davis's support was reckoned to be a key factor in Napthine's ousting as leader by Robert Doyle in August 2002. Davis returned to the front bench under Doyle's leadership and ousted Bill Forwood as upper house Opposition Leader after the 2002 election; he currently holds the country Victoria, state and development and energy and resources portfolios.

The other winnable positions on the ticket are occupied by Edward O'Donohue, a real estate company manager and former lawyer, and Susie Manson, who is described as "a consultant working in the health sector", with "previous experience in the financial services sector".

The Nationals and the Greens are both rated as possibilities for the final seat, with the former seeming the more likely prospect. Their lead candidate is Peter Hall, who has been member for Gippsland province since 1988 and is currently the party's leader in the upper house. Greens candidate Louis Delacretaz is a former mayor of Yarra Ranges.

NORTHERN METROPOLITAN

Except in its outer northern reaches, Northern Metropolitan region covers some of the safest Labor territory in the state: from the city at its southern extremity, it passes through a thin band of north-eastern suburbs extending beyond the city limits, to Whittlesea in the north and up the Yarra Valley to Watsons Creek in the east. In this electorally one-sided area, the replacement of single-member districts with proportional representation has meant a squeeze for Labor and a new opportunity for the Liberals. The region covers all of the old province of Jika Jika and half of Melbourne and Melbourne North, each a Labor stronghold. The only two Liberals representing any part of this region in either house are Bill Forwood and Graeme Stoney, whose old provinces only cover a quarter of the new region (and who are both retiring). Even so, Labor has found room in Northern Metropolitan for one newcomer, along with the two members for Jika Jika. All other members have being accommodated elsewhere – with safe seats in the case of ministers Gavin Jennings, Candy Broad and Marsha Thomson, and highly unsafe ones for back-benchers Glenyys Romanes, Lidia Argondizzo and Robert Mitchell. By contrast, the Liberals are guaranteed to have at least one member in what had formerly been a dead zone. Even more significantly, the region looks like a very strong prospect for the Greens, who have never previously had a Victorian MP at either state or federal level.

Of Labor's three seats, the first and third have gone to the Right and the second to the Left. At the top of the pile is Theo Theophanous, factional chieftain and member for Jika Jika since 1988. Originally associated with the Socialist Left, Theophanous shifted his numbers to Labor Unity via a tumultuous Left split in 1996 that initially put him at the front seat of a new group called the Labor Renewal Alliance. Colleagues in the latter faction included his brother Andrew, the former MP who was jailed in 2002 for immigration fraud, and the other Right faction nominee for Northern Metropolitan (more on whom shortly). Along the way, Theophanous found time to serve as Consumer Affairs and Small Business Minister in the Kirner government, and as Energy Industries and Resources Minister in the second term of the Bracks government.

The Left's candidate is Jenny Mikakos, an old rival of Theophanous going back to the days of the memorable Batman preselection ahead of the 1996 election. Then a Northcote councillor and taxation lawyer, Mikakos had won support to replace the retiring Brian Howe from the hard left Pledge faction, which won support from Labor Unity as part of a complicated deal that froze out the candidate of the Socialist Left – Theo Theophanous. The complicated factional manoeuvres were ultimately trumped when the national executive intervened to install ACTU president Martin Ferguson. The Unity-Pledge alliance ultimately bore fruit for Mikakos at the 1999 state election, when she defeated incumbent Pat Power for the Jika Jika preselection. Mikakos has since rejoined the Socialist Left, and was promoted to a parliamentary secretary position following the 2002 election. She created a stir in May when she compared the mass exile of Pontic Greeks by Turkey during and after World War I to the Jewish holocaust, angering the Turkish and Jewish communities.

Third on the ticket is Nazih Elasmar, a figurehead of the Lebanese Christian community who in January received the Order of Australia for "service to the Lebanese community of Victoria through cultural, charitable and welfare organisations". Elasmar is also a former mayor of Darebin, a position he held at the time the council was sacked by the Kennett government in 1998. He is also a long-standing electorate officer to Theo Theophanous, and followed him along the path through the Labor Renewal Alliance to Labor Unity. Elasmar reportedly had the numbers to assume the lower house seat of Northcote when Tony Sheahan retired to 1998, but was persuaded by the Right to stand aside for Mary Delahunty (who was factionally non-aligned thereafter). A report on Channel Nine's Sunday program in 1998 accused him of having secured this strength through branch-stacking.

Topping the Liberal ticket is ASIC manager Matthew Guy, who ran for the lower house seat of Yan Yean in 2002. He is probably best remembered as the subject of then-Police Minister Andre Haermeyer's attack on him under parliamentary privilege before the 2002 election, in which he was labelled a "liar and a thief". Guy was accused of telling the media "political opponents" had vandalised his car without making any such claim in his police complaint, and of having been picked up by police for stealing election signs. When parliament next sat 12 days later, Haermeyer was compelled to make a personal explanation in which he accepted only that Guy had not been charged over the signs incident. The Liberals complained to the Ombudsman who eventually found there had been unauthorised access to Guy's police files three days before Haermeyer made his claims, and that the person responsible was the husband of Attorney-General Rob Hulls' personal assistant – although the Ombudsman accepted the latter's insistence he had not contacted Haermeyer's office about the matter.

The Greens preselection inevitably attracted considerable interest from party activists, candidates including Gemma Pinnell (who ran for the lower house seat of Richmond in 2002, and the federal lower house seat of Melbourne in 2004), Yarra councillor Jenny Farrar and former Yarra mayor Greg Barber. Barber and Pinnell were reckoned by all to be the front-runners, and the former prevailed by what was described in the press as "a couple of handfuls of voters". As well as his council credentials (he was the first member of the Greens ever to become a mayor in Australia), Barber has a Masters in Business Administration and has worked as a "corporate campaigner" for the Wilderness Society.

NORTHERN VICTORIA

As the name suggests, Northern Victoria extends from the South Australian border to the eastern end of the state without touching the coast. The region includes the old provinces of North Eastern and North Western, which were normally won by the Nationals. An exception was Liberal Wendy Lovell's win at the 2002 election, when sitting member Jeanette Powell moved to the lower house seat of Shepparton. Lovell comfortably outpolled the Nationals candidate 33.2 per cent to 24.3 per cent, and has now assumed the top position on the party's ticket. The other local Liberal member, Central Highlands MLC Graeme Stoney, is retiring. Like many surprise Liberal winners from 2002, Central Highlands member Rob Mitchell was at the back of the queue when winnable seats were handed out under the new arrangements for the scaled back upper house, and has had to make do with preselection for the Nationals-held lower house seat of Benalla. As part of a contentious trend of Labor's country upper house tickets being dominated by city-based sitting members, the Labor front-runner is Melbourne North MLC Candy Broad; however, second place holder Kaye Darveniza can claim local credentials because she was raised in Shepparton, despite having represented Melbourne West province in parliament.

A former ALP assistant national secretary and head of the Premier's office during the Joan Kirner years, Candy Broad is a member of the small Left sub-faction associated with federal front-bencher Martin Ferguson. A seat has been found for her despite this grouping's lack of muscle due to Steve Bracks' insistence that seats be found for all ministers. Broad can make the unusual claim of having been a minister throughout her parliamentary career, first as Energy and Resources Minister after her election in Melbourne North province at the 1999 election, then in the local government and housing portfolios after the 2002 election.

Kaye Darveniza is a former state secretary of the Right faction Health Services Union, through which she came to attention handling disputes with the Kennett government on behalf of psychiatric services and disabled care workers. Darveniza is married to the union's current national secretary, Rob Elliott, and her sister Gail Gago is a state upper house MP in South Australia; Paul Robinson of The Age reports that their father Mijo was a "respected National Party numbers man". Darveniza was originally slated to succeed Tony Sheahan as the member for Northcote, but instead made way for Mary Delahunty in a deal that compensated her with the Melbourne West province seat at the 1999 election. This arrangement crowded out the Right's original appointee for Melbourne West, businessman Peter Hansen, who had been touted as a potential star candidate. Darveniza was immediately appointed parliamentary secretary to the Premier in 1999, although she has risen no further since. With the changes to the upper house, she was accommodated in Northern Victoria after originally nominating for Western Metropolitan against the wishes of her factional leaders.

Third on Labor's ticket is Marg Lewis, said to be of the Socialist Left faction. Lewis stood in North-Western province in 2002 and very nearly won the seat at the expense of the Nationals' Damian Drum.

Wendy Lovell has enjoyed a swift rise since her election in 2002, being immediately appointed women's affairs spokesperson and progressively winning promotion to her current role as Shadow Consumer Affairs and Tourism Minister. In October, Ellen Whinnett of the Herald-Sun reported that Lovell was being touted to replace Andrea Coote as upper house deputy leader with the support of opponents of the Costello/Kroger camp.

Donna Petrovich is a former councillor and mayor of the Shire of Macedon Ranges. Her husband, former police prosecutor Serge Petrovich, was in the news in July 2004 when it was revealed he had accessed the police file of Bernie Finn (now heading the Western Metropolitan ticket), whom he opposed for the Macedon preselection. A report by the Ombudsman accepted that he had done so for professional reasons. Third on the ticket is John Lithgow, manager of a Yarra Valley hotel.

The head of the Nationals' upper house ticket, and their only upper house candidate reckoned a certainty for re-election, is Damian Drum, who was narrowly elected to North Western province at the 2002 election. Drum is well known beyond the field of politics through his football career, which included 63 VFL games for Geelong and two years as coach of the then-hapless Fremantle Dockers. The theoretically winnable second position on the ticket has gone to Wangaratta businessman Justin Scholz. Wild card candidates include celebrity chef Stefano de Pieri, running as an independent, and People Power's Denise Allen, who held the lower seat of Benalla for Labor from 2000 to 2002.

SOUTH-EASTERN METROPOLITAN

South-Eastern Metropolitan covers the bayside from Heatherton south to Frankston, and extends inland to Mount Waverley, Dandenong, Narre Warren and Cranbourne. The 11 lower house districts that make up South-Eastern Metropolian are all currently held by Labor, but most are naturally marginal. The region covers all of the abolished province of Chelsea, a Labor-leaning seat which was won by the Liberals in 1992 and 1996; three-quarters of Eumemmering, a normally Liberal seat that turned red at the 2002 election; three-quarters of Waverley, a Liberal seat which became notionally Labor with the 2002 redistribution, then actually Labor following a 10.1 per cent swing; and the district of Mordialloc in Higinbotham. Of the two Chelsea MPs, Labor has found room for Matt Viney in Eastern Victoria while Bob Smith has been allotted the shaky third position here. Labor's Eumemmering MP Adem Somyurek is second, while Waverley MP John Lenders has been accommodated at the head of the Southern Metropolitan ticket. Of the respective Liberal members for these provinces, Andrew Brideson is retiring and Gordon Rich-Phillips heads the Liberal ticket.

Gavin Jennings is a big wheel in the Socialist Left faction, said to be at odds with its nominal figurehead Kim Carr. Before entering parliament Jennings worked as a "troubleshooter" for various unions and as an adviser to premiers John Cain and Joan Kirner. He inherited his faction's fiefdom of Melbourne province at the 1999 election upon the retirement of Barry Pullen, relying on the solid support of the party's central panel after losing the local party vote to Richard Wynne (now the member for Richmond). Jennings was immediately appointed deputy Labor leader in the upper house and Cabinet Secretary in the incoming Bracks government, and was further promoted to Aged Care and Aboriginal Affairs Minister at the start of the second term.

Adem Somyurek is a Right faction member of Turkish background, and a former adviser to federal Holt MP Anthony Byrne. Somyurek has distinguished himself from most other Muslims in the Labor Party by supporting the 2003 invasion of Iraq and calling for the deportation of radical Islamic cleric Sheikh Mohammed Omran.

Third on the ticket is Carrum MLC Bob Smith, a one-time naval officer and former state secretary of the Australian Workers Union. Writing in 1998, Ewin Hannan of The Age reported he "sought and achieved notoriety through regular attacks on the Trades Hall leadership and, most notably, by meeting the Premier to distance himself from threatened industrial action during the construction of the Grand Prix circuit". Committee work aside, he has failed to win promotion during his seven years in parliament.

A former manager of Aviation Projects Tourism Victoria, Gordon Rich-Phillips entered parliament in 1999 at the age of 25 after winning preselection for Eumemmering ahead of former federal MP Ken Aldred. Following the decimation of Liberal ranks at the 2002 election, Rich-Phillips became the party spokesperson for sport, recreation and the Commonwealth Games, and impressed his superiors enough to win promotion to Shadow Finance Minister in December 2005. He is associated with the Kroger-Costello camp, and was loyal to Robert Doyle during his rocky tenure as leader.

Inga Peulich will return to parliament after her unexpected defeat in the lower house seat of Bentleigh at the 2002 election. Reckoned to be a social conservative, Peulich was described by the Herald-Sun as "a key member of the Costello-backed reform team that took control of the Victorian Liberal Party" in March 2004. Her preselection win came at the expense of sitting Higinbotham member Chris Strong; despite her factional alignment, this was seen as a rebuff to Robert Doyle's call for all sitting MPs to be re-endorsed. Peulich emigrated to Australia from Bosnia in 1967 and first entered parliament in 1992, but failed to win significant promotion during her 10 year stint in Bentleigh.

In third place is Ken Ong, a Chinese community leader described by the party website as a "company director" who "has spent much of his professional career managing and developing business opportunities in the telecommunications and financial sectors, as well as in childcare". Ong also made a run for preselection to the lower house seat of Mount Waverley, in the course of which he was controversially given a reference by Lord Mayor John So on council letterhead.

The Greens ticket is headed by theology lecturer Jim Reiher, who was the party's candidate for Holt at the 2004 federal election. Preference arrangements have created an outside chance of victory for People Power and the Democrats, whose respective candidates are anti-pokies campaigner Linda Hancock and medical researcher Karen Bailey.

SOUTHERN METROPOLITAN

With the Yarra as its northern boundary, Southern Metropolitan covers the bayside from Port Melbourne south to Black Rock, and inland through generally wealthy areas to Balwyn North, Burwood, Chadstone and Bentleigh. It includes all of one abolished upper house province, Monash, and three-quarters of two more, Higinbotham and East Yarra. The first two were normally Liberal seats where Labor scored narrow wins in 2002, and the third went within 0.2 per cent of going the same way. The region also includes the district of Oakleigh in the old province of Waverley. The Liberals have found secure spots on the ticket for their Monash and East Yarra members, Andrea Coote and David Davis; Higinbotham MP Chris Strong unsuccessfully sought preselection for South Eastern Metropolitan. Another aspirant was Ron Wilson, staffer to Robert Doyle and defeated member for Mount Waverley in 2002, who had the backing of his struggling employer. Typically, Labor has come to a more complicated arrangement, with Monash member Johan Scheffer accommodated in Eastern Victoria and Noel Pullen given the career-ending lower house nomination for Sandringham. The party's ticket is led by its member for Waverley, John Lenders, and has newcomers in second and third place.

David Davis is a former chiropractor who entered parliament as member for East Yarra at the 1996 election. He was given a parliamentary secretary position in 2000 and won a significant promotion to Shadow Health Minister after the 2002 election. A further portfolio, country Victoria, was added in January 2004. Davis is a member of the anti-Kroger/Costello grouping associated with Jeff Kennett, and was demoted from health to environment in a December 2005 reshuffle seen by critics of then-leader Robert Doyle as a factional payback. He was compensated when planning was added to his workload after Ted Baillieu became leader in May 2006, and reportedly has support to replace Phil Davis as upper house leader after the election. Earlier in the year he was named as a potential contestant for the federal Kooyong preselection against sitting member Petro Georgiou.

Andrea Coote is a former school administrator and adviser to Kennett government minister Michael John. She was elected to Monash province in 1999 after winning preselection ahead of former lord mayor Des Clark. A prominent member of the Costello-Kroger camp, Coote was considered a key supporter of Robert Doyle's leadership; when she withdrew that support in May, Doyle recognised he could no longer continue. Coote's failure to secure the top place on the ticket at the preselection six months earlier was seen to illustrate Doyle's deteriorating position. Her entry to the front bench as Shadow Cabinet Secretary had followed Doyle's ascension to the leadership in August 2002; after the election defeat the following November, she won further promotion to Shadow Tourism Minister, Ageing Minister and upper house deputy leader. Tourism was exchanged for the newly created Victorian communities portfolio in January 2004, which in turn was exchanged for arts, children and housing in December 2005; a further change followed Ted Baillieu's rise to the leadership in May 2006, with housing traded for community services. Coote was in the news both here and in Ireland in 2004 as she clashed with her ex-husband, John Coote, over ownership of a $15 million Irish mansion. Later in the year she came under fire when her current husband bought shares in ConnectEast, the operator of the Mitcham to Frankston tollway. On October 13, Ellen Whinnett of the Herald-Sun reported that Doyle opponents had been planning a move against Coote's upper house deputy leadership, but had been persuaded to hold off by Ted Baillieu in the interests of party unity; however, the push was reportedly likely to be renewed following the election, with Wendy Lovell tipped as her successor.

David Southwick is an business management lecturer of Jewish background who ran for the federal seat of Melbourne Ports in 2004. Southwick made his fortune at a young age as founder of a cosmetics company which he sold in 1999, and was named Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 1997. He is now "entrepreneur in residence at RMIT University".

John Lenders was party state secretary from 1994 until he entered parliament in 1999. He then won preselection to the lower house seat of Dandenong North, which he won despite the opposition of the Socialist Left who fielded Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union state president Maurice Graham against him. Lenders was immediately appointed parliamentary secretary for treasury and finance in the incoming Bracks government, and made the front bench in February 2002 as Industrial Relations and Finance Minister. With the abolition of Dandenong North at the 2002 election, Lenders was uncomfortably accommodated in the upper house seat of Waverley, a previously Liberal seat which had a slight notional Labor margin after the 2002 redistribution. He retained the seat with a 10.1 per cent swing and was immediately made leader of the government in the Legislative Council, also trading his industrial relations portfolio for consumer affairs. The latter portfolio was in turn traded for major projects, WorkCover and the TAC in January 2005.

Evan Thornley came to fame as the founder of the technology company LookSmart, which signed a lucrative directory and listing services deal with Microsoft in 1998. He concurrently forged contacts in the Labor Party and became national secretary of the Australian Fabian Society, and made little secret of his political ambitions. After seeking but failing to receive factional backing to win preselection for the safe federal seat of Scullin, an upper house seat was made available for him on the insistence of Steve Bracks.

Third on the Labor ticket is Shelly Freeman, a former solicitor and adviser to Manufacturing and Export Minister Andre Haermeyer.

The Greens' lead candidate is Sue Pennicuik, an information officer with the Australian Drug Foundation. Her only previous run for parliamentary office came with a low position on the Senate ticket at the 2004 federal election.

WESTERN METROPOLITAN

Western Metropolitan covers the more traditionally working class areas of Melbourne, where the Greens have failed to threaten Labor's dominance. The Greens polled 9.6 per cent here on 2002 figures, which would possibly have put them ahead of Labor's fourth candidate on Democrats preferences and delivered them a seat on Labor's surplus. This would have been a close-run thing, and it is quite possible that a fourth seat could have gone to Labor instead. It remains all but certain that of the first four seats, Labor will win three and the Liberals one, while the final seat is up for grabs. For the Greens to win, they will need to stay ahead of the fourth Labor candidate: this will be made easier by the likely decline in the Labor vote, but harder by the drying up of preferences from the declining Democrats. If this hurdle is cleared, it is likely that Labor's surplus will give them enough preferences to win them the seat. The Liberals' decision to put the Greens last on preferences is unlikely to matter here: if the Liberals do not win the seat themselves, their second candidate seems sure to be the last man standing and his preferences will not be distributed. Alternatively, the Greens could fail to overtake the fourth Labor candidate, who would then win the seat with their preferences. The other most likely scenario is that the Liberal primary vote will increase by enough to either win a second quota in their own right, or come close enough that minor and micro-party preferences will get them over the line. There is also a fourth possibility: that a minor or even micro-party candidate will harvest enough preferences to get ahead of the fourth Labor, second Liberal or first Greens candidate, and thus to snowball their way to a quota. Indeed, that arithmetic in this region is such that it seems to offer the best prospects for an upset win by Family First, People Power or some other independent force yet to appear on the radar.

Labor thus had three safe seats to play with during preselections – and as in Northern Metropolitan, this left them with too many pegs and not enough holes. Western Metropolitan covers: a) the entire area of two abolished provinces represented by two Labor members, Doutta Galla (Justin Madden and Monica Gould) and Melbourne West (Kaye Darveniza and Sang Ngyuen); b) half the area of one other, Melbourne North (Marsha Thomson and Candy Broad); and c) a quarter of the area of a fourth, Melbourne (Glenyys Romanes and Gavin Jennings). Monica Gould, who was a minister in the government's first term and Legislative Council president in the second, has done her party a favour by retiring, despite being only 49. Candy Broad and Kaye Darveniza has been accommodated in Northern Victoria, while Marsha Thomson will move to the safe lower house seat of Footscray. The big loser is Sang Nguyen, who in 1996 became Australia's first Vietnamese-born parliamentarian. Nguyen will exit politics after being dumped by his Labor Unity faction, complaining at the time: "everyone in the Labor Unity leadership group promised me if I looked after Bill Shorten, they would look after me".

As in Northern Metropolitan, the first and third positions have gone to the Right and the second to the Left. Top of the ticket is Sports Minister Justin Madden, known far beyond Victoria as the towering ruckman who played 332 VFL/AFL games for Carlton and Essendon between 1980 and 1995. Madden came to politics via his role as president of the AFL Players Association from 1990, and was recruited by the Right to assume the safe upper house seat of Douta Galla within two years of his last AFL game. This position was made available early in the 1999 campaign by the deselection of Tayfun Eren, who was become politically vulnerable following a messy divorce case and was dumped as part of a factional deal devised to remove Demetri Dollis from Richmond. Madden was immediately made Sports Minister in the Bracks government, a position which was expanded during the current term with responsibility for the Commonwealth Games. Doubts were initially raised over the security of his position in parliament resulting from the cut in upper house numbers, but these were settled by Steve Bracks' edict that seats be found for all ministers. It was originally planned that Madden would move to the lower house by replacing the retiring Sherryl Garbutt as the member for Bundoora , an arrangement that froze out long-term aspirant Colin Brooks. However, the late announcement of Northcote MP Mary Delahunty's retirement led Steve Bracks to insist on a new arrangement to accommodate Brooks. This was done by switching Madden to Western Metropolitan in place of Right faction convenor Fiona Richardson, who was instead nominated for Northcote while Brooks took Bundoora.

The Left originally wished for the second position to go to Hume councillor Mohamad Abbouche, as part of a deal in which Abbouche defected from the Right and delivered his numbers to federal MP Maria Vamvakinou in the Calwell preselection. However, this was vetoed by Steve Bracks, presumably due to a controversies surrounding Abbouche involving alleged branch stacking and failure to declare a donation. His replacement was another figure in the Arab community, Khalil Eideh, millionaire manager of family-owned transport company Blue Star Logistics and president of the Alawi Islamic Association. Mark Davis of the Financial Review described the latter organisation as "strongly pro-Syrian in the complex world of Lebanese politics", and said Eideh was "known inside the Labor Party for definite pro-Syrian views on Middle East affairs". This point was sharply underscored in June with the emergence of a letter from Eideh to the Syrian government, in which Eideh promised "absolute loyalty" to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and warned that "the threat from the colonial and Zionist is increasing on our Arabic world". Soon afterwards, Ellen Whinnett of the Herald-Sun reported that the Left and Right were considering a deal in which the former would dump Eideh and the latter would dispose of controversial Keilor MP George Seitz. Eideh secured his position in August after meeting with Jewish leaders and convincing them of his contrition.

Third on the ticket is National Union of Workers state secretary Martin Pakula, who emerged as the influential union's leading figure after the departure of Greg Sword in 2004. Pakula is associated in the public mind not with the seat he will soon be assuming, but with his unsuccessful preselection challenge against Simon Crean in Clayton) led to a general expectation that Pakula had the numbers, so there great surprise when Crean decisively won the local ballot 190 votes to 88. Weeks later, Pakula declared his interest in a state upper house seat and had his nomination accepted by the national executive a month after the official deadline. Pakula's preselection froze out Sam Nguyen and another hopeful, Geelong MLC Elaine Carbines, who has had to settle for the undesirable third place on the Northern Victoria ticket.

The theoretically winnable fourth position has gone to Henry Barlow, a former Wyndham mayor, current adviser to Energy Industries and Resources Minister Theo Theophanous. Barlow is a member of the Right faction, and was said by Labor sources to have won his position with the backing of Senator Steve Conroy. He had earlier ruffled factional feathers by nominating against Steve Bracks's chief-of-staff Tim Pallas for the Tarneit preselection, but was persuaded to withdraw.

Pole position on the Liberal ticket is occupied by Bernie Finn, who has been rewarded for his persistence after his failed attempt to return to parliament in Macedon at the 2002 election. Finn had earlier been the member for Tullamarine from his surprise victory at the 1992 election until his defeat in the successor seat of Yuroke in 1999. Finn is also known for his other career as an outspoken radio announcer (he recently volunteered to personally execute the Bali nine), having worked over the years for 3AW and the now-defunct 3AK. He is now listed as "a ministerial adviser to a federal parliamentarian". Paul Austin of The Age reported that Finn secured support from the Kroger-Costello camp to win last October's preselection ballot over Kennett camp rival Jenny Matic by 25 votes to 18. His wife, Catherine Finn, has been nominated as the party's candidate in her husband's old stamping ground of Yuroke. The potentially winnable second position is occupied by Stephen Reynolds, a former police officer and current public service compliance officer.

The Greens have nominated Colleen Hartland, a Footscray public housing support worker and former Maribyrnong councillor. Hartland once stood as an independent in Footscray way back in 1992, but did not much trouble the tally board operators. In an article in yesterday's Sunday Herald-Sun, Channel Seven political reporter Brendan Donohoe showed what they pay him for with this line about her old gig on the Parliament House catering staff: "she may have served tea and scones to the politicians sometimes through gritted teeth, but in a few weeks she could be back to serve them all some political curry – a green curry that Bracks and others may find hard to digest".

WESTERN VICTORIA

Western Victoria extends from Geelong along the coast west to the South Australian border, and inland to Ballarat and Horsham. It covers two entire abolished provinces: Geelong, a traditionally Labor area won by the Liberals in 1992 and 1996, and Western, which has always been held by Liberals or Nationals and is currently dominated by the former. The new region's other three lower house districts are from the old Ballarat province, including safe Labor Melton and the more marginal Ballarat East and Ballarat West. Labor has contentiously chosen to put two city-based union officials at the head of the ticket, demoting its existing Geelong-based MLC Elaine Carbines to third place. The other Labor member for Geelong, John Eren, has found a comfortable new home in the lower house district of Lara. The members for Ballarat are Dianne Hadden, who quit the Labor Party in April 2004 in protest against the proposed toxic waste dump near Mildura and will run as an independent in Ballarat East; and John McQuilten, who has announced his retirement after his Right faction failed to provide him with a winnable position. The Liberal members for Western province, John Vogels and David Koch, have had a more straightforward time of it, and respectively hold the number one and number two positions on the Liberal ticket.

Jaala Pulford is an organiser with the National Union of Workers, and the Right's endorsement for the top position at the expensive of sitting member Elaine Carbines. Ewin Hannan of The Australian reported that Pulford's preselection was a "pay-off" to the NUW from the Labor Unity faction for its support for Bill Shorten in the federal Maribyrnong preselection. Gayle Tierney became the first female state secretary of the vehicles division of the Left faction Automotive, Metals and Engineering Union in 1993, continuing with the role when the union amalgamated with others to form the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union.

Pulford and Tierney's preselection came at the expense of sitting member Elaine Carbines, who entered parliament as member for Geelong province in 1999 and was promoted to parliamentary secretary for education and training in March 2002, then reassigned to environment after the November election. With factional deals depriving her of support from her Right faction, Carbines was the only officer holder Steve Bracks was unable to protect through his demand that seats be found for all ministers.

John Vogels is a Timboon dairy farmer who entered parliament in 1999 at the age of 53, winning the seat of Warrnambool from the Nationals upon the retirement of John McGrath. Warrnambool and the neighbouring electorate of Portland were abolished at the subsequent redistribution and replaced with the new seat of South West Coast; this led Vogels to take refuge in the upper house seat of Western that was being vacated by the retirement of Bruce Chamberlain, leaving South West Coastal free for Portland MP then-Liberal leader Denis Napthine. Vogels became the Liberals' local government spokesman after the November 2002 election, and further acquired the Victorian communities portfolio in December 2005.

Second on the Liberal ticket is David Koch, who won the seat of Western province from the Nationals in 2002 upon the retirement of their sitting member, Kennett government minister Roger Hallam. Koch was immediately given the role of Liberal racing spokesperson, and made the front-bench as Shadow Racing and Forestry Minister when Ted Baillieu became leader in May 2006. Pledged support for Robert Doyle in February.

The Nationals ticket is headed by Samantha McIntosh, who operates a bed-and-breakfast in Ballarat. The lead Greens candidate is architect Marcus Ward, who was the party's candidate for Burke at the 2001 federal election and Macedon at the 2002 state election.