A KINGSTON councillor has been chosen to stand as a candidate for the Liberal Party in Mordialloc at next year’s state election.
Cr Geoff Gledhill, who was mayor in 2015, was officially preselected last Wednesday (9 August) over fellow Liberal challenger Rob Beaton by the party to face off against Mordialloc Labor MP Tim Richardson next November.
Labor won the seat of Mordialloc from the Liberals at the 2014 state election when Premier Daniel Andrews won government by ousting the one-term former Coalition government at the polls.
Mr Richardson’s margin is a slim 2.1 per cent in one of four swinging “sand belt” electorates along the Frankston line — the others being Bentleigh, Carrum and Frankston — seen as crucial to winning government.
Carrum, Frankston and Bentleigh are held by Labor my margins under 1 per cent.
Former Carrum MP Donna Bauer hopes to win preselection again to try to retake the seat for the Liberal Party.
Gandhi Bevinakoppa and Carmella Monger are also Liberal candidates for preselection in Carrum.
Asher Judah was preselected in Bentleigh earlier this month by the Liberal Party to contest the seat against Labor MP Nick Staikos.
Frankston police station commander Senior Sergeant Michael Lamb won Liberal Party preselection on Saturday 5 August to try to unseat incumbent Labor MP Paul Edbrooke.
First published in the Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News – 16 August 2017
