A serving Victoria Police officer will face off against a former firefighter in what is likely to be a tight race to win the marginal seat of Frankston at next year’s state election.
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 next November.
Mr Edbrooke, a Mt Eliza resident, was a Country Fire Authority firefighter for 13 years before his election as a state MP in 2014.
Senior Sergeant Lamb saw off a challenge from Liberal hopefuls Darrel Taylor, a former Frankston councillor and mayor, and financial adviser Alex Screen to win preselection in the first round of internal party membership voting.
The police officer is a Frankston resident and is president of the Frankston YCW Football Netball Club.
“As a father, I understand the concerns of families in the Frankston community with the scourge of the drug ice,” Mr Lamb said in a statement provided by the Liberal Party’s head office in Melbourne.
“After working as a frontline policeman for over 31 years, I have witnessed firsthand the consequences of violent crime on victims.”
Mr Edbrooke won the seat of Frankston from former Liberal turned independent MP Geoff Shaw at the 2014 state election getting over the line against Liberal candidate Sean Armistead by just 336 votes after distribution of preferences, a 0.5 per cent margin.
Labor and Premier Daniel Andrews ousted the former Coalition state government under Denis Napthine from power after just one term in office, initially under ex-premier Ted Baillieu’s who resigned in 2013.
Mr Edbrooke’s wafer-thin 0.5 per cent margin is in one of four swinging “sand belt” electorates along the Frankston line — the others being Carrum, Mordialloc and Bentleigh — seen as crucial to winning government.
Carrum and Bentleigh are held by Labor my margins under 1 per cent. Tim Richardson has a 2.1 per margin in Mordialloc.
Former Carrum MP Donna Bauer hopes to win preselection again to try to retake the seat for the Liberal Party from Labor MP Sonya Kilkenny.
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.
