Wentworth federal election 2022 campaign shenanigans Dave Sharma and Allegra Spender

Dave Sharma’s battle to retain Wentworth is one of the most high profile campaigns this federal election, it’s also the one with some of the most drama and hijinks.

There have been shenanigans a plenty on the hustings in the east with teams Sharma and Spender clashing over corflutes and sledging on social media.

It all started with a stoush over campaign signage.

An anecdotal traipse around the electorate reveals the teal Spender signs, many of which are in the yards of multimillion-dollar homes, seem to outnumber those belonging to the modern Liberal.

While supporters in some low brow electorates may resort to tactics such inking moustaches and angry eyebrows on one another’s corflutes, not so in affluent Wentworth.

Here in the east they took the mature approach and dobbed on each other.

Correspondence from the Liberal Wentworth federal election committee encouraged Sharma’s supporters to complain to Ausgrid about the campaign signs hung by his opponent on powerpoles in contravention of the NSW Electricity Supply Act.

Meanwhile, a resident made a complaint about Sharma’s billboard on the Edgecliff Centre prompting Woollahra council to ask for its removal as it appeared to breach the agreed advertising terms in the centre’s development application.

The resulting media coverage was gleefully share on social media by Spender supporters.

It’s understood Sharma’s team simply applied to rent the billboard and the ongoing stoush is between the council and the centre.

The cheekiest campaign sign of all belongs to Liberal Democrat Daniel Lewkovitz with the nuclear energy advocate creating a custom corflute to perch on top of the Waverley council signage declaring the area a nuclear-free zone.

A grinning Lewkovitz is pictured pointing at Waverley council’s pledge with the words “that sign is stupid”.

Voters will be relieved to know both their lead contenders in Wentworth are smart cookies.

Not only was Spender head girl and dux of Ascham but her old principal, the influential Rowena Danziger, has publicly endorsed her.

Not to be outdone, Sharma included his impressive TER score of 100 in his campaign flyers which guaranteed him a ribbing online.

Speaking of those campaign flyers, a debate erupted about whether their background was closer to blue or teal with the latter colour adopted by the Climate 200 independent movement.

An unrepentant Sharma shared a photo of himself on social media campaigning in a blue shirt with a poll asking his supporters to vote on its colour.

Both teams have recruited the electorate’s cutest residents to help bolster their campaigns.

A growing number of dogs have been spotted wearing Vote 1 Spender neck kerchiefs while Sharma’s adorable youngest daughter Daphne has been accompanying dad on the campaign trail during school holidays.

Sharma shared a charming photo of little Daphne who had apparently had enough and was slumped on a Bondi Junction footpath wearing her campaign shirt.

There were some concerns for little Daphne after Sharma announced on social media he would be cooking his infamous lasagne for her birthday last week.

No Dave, it does not.

Sharma shared a snap on Instagram, of what can only be described as an affront to Nonnas everywhere, back in March which depicted a burnt creation bereft of any cheese or bechamel sauce with the highly inaccurate caption “lasagne looks good tonight”.

The “lasagne” quickly went viral with one jokester tweeting “can you really trust Dave Sharma to govern when you can’t even trust him with a lasagne?”

@davesharmamp Special dinner request for my daughter’s birthday dinner! #OscarsAtHome#viral#fyp#Podcast#CarTok#dinner♬ original sound - Dave Sharma MP

Thankfully like all good politicians, Sharma appears to have listened to concerns and learned from his mistakes and a TikTok of him whipping up the new and improved pasta dish proved second time around it did indeed look delicious.