OVER half the voting population of the electorate of Orange may be wondering why Orange business manager Bernard Fitzsimon has thrown his hat into the ring for Labor at next year’s state election.
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They will be recalling the size of the margin of Nationals MP Andrew Gee’s win and thinking his seat is unassailable. Given the historic hold the Nationals have had on this state seat it would indeed be an upset of epic proportions if Mr Fitzsimon was to unseat Mr Gee.
Perhaps the only thing less likely than a Labor win in Orange with Mr Fitzsimon in the race is Mr Gee being unseated if he was not on the ballot paper.
But if political candidates only stood in contests where they had a good chance the torpor of incumbency on both side of politics would bog down many electorates in this state and government would be the poorer for it.
Mr Gee can expect Mr Fitzsimon to take the contest of ideas up to him over the next four months in the way Cassandra Coleman has taken Local Government Minister Paul Toole to task in the seat of Bathurst.
Regardless of their allegiances voters in Orange will not be expecting a change in March, they should however now expect a contest and that can only be a good thing.