A FORMER mayor of Frankston will oversee Liberal candidate for Dunkley Chris Crewther’s campaign to succeed departing MP Bruce Billson ahead of the 2 July federal election.
Cr Darrel Taylor is Mr Crewther’s election campaign manager tasked with giving the Liberals’ candidate a good run at seeing off the challenge of Labor candidate Peta Murphy to hold the seat of Dunkley.
When contacted by The Times Cr Taylor confirmed he had been approached to be Mr Crewther’s election minder a few weeks after the Liberals decided on its candidate to contest Dunkley.
The councillor is the treasurer of the Frankston South branch of the party and the secretary of the Dunkley Federal Electorate Conference.
“I was asked to be campaign manager by Chris and the executive of the Dunkley FEC and I accepted,” Cr Taylor said.
He sees no conflict with his councillor duties in the run-up to polling day next month.
“It won’t have an impact and won’t be an issue. I’ll be busy no doubt and won’t have any spare time.”
Cr Taylor’s entry as a player in the federal election risked reigniting divisions within council – some fellow councillors were unhappy when he put his hand up for Liberal preselection for Frankston when mayor before the 2014 state election – but one of the most vocal critics Cr Colin Hampton says he has no problem with Cr Taylor’s latest political move.
Cr Hampton, a Labor Party member, said Cr Taylor had promised not to nominate for preselection before he was anointed mayor in 2013 by his peers. Cr Taylor denied the claim.
“I have no problem with him doing that [being a Liberal campaign manager] because he didn’t promise councillors he wouldn’t do that,” Cr Hampton said last week.
“In this respect it’s a democracy and he’s allowed to do what he wants but he’ll have to be very careful about promoting that candidate in the chamber.”
Cr Taylor missed out on state preselection to Sean Armistead who fell short in his bid to defeat Frankston Labor MP Paul Edbrooke, who succeeded Liberal turned independent Geoff Shaw, by a slim margin at the 2014 state election.
