To win Wentworth you need some legal howitzers and 700 mates on the cocktail circuit

Goodbye and thanks for all the votes! TheAustralian, August 30:

Malcolm Turnbull … isn’t expected to help the Liberals campaign … (in Wentworth), instead travelling with … Lucy to the Big Apple, where they own a luxury apartment.

Backlash at brutes! Sharri Markson, The Daily Telegraph, August 30:

There is expected to be a voter backlash (in Wentworth) … given Mr Turnbull’s treatment at the hands of his colleagues.

Who was brutal? Paddy Manning, The Monthly, February 27:

John Hyde Page told … of Turnbull’s preselection campaign … the biggest branch stack in Australian history, in which the PM knocked off the sitting member, Peter King. He described (Scott) Briggs … working for … Turnbull Pillemer … as Turnbull’s “paid political minder” who directed the preselection coup … (He marvelled that) Turnbull had enough resources to retain a pair of QCs full-time looking for avenues to challenge King’s preselection legally: “The Turnbull victory was a textbook example of the ugly way in which money and power can be used to crush a weaker opponent … Turnbull and Briggs could blast away with their legal howitzers and still have plenty of hours … each day to lobby preselectors.”

No Labor tactics! The Sydney Morning Herald, October 3, 2003:

Forget the … ALP’s state conference … The real political pugilism is in … the harbourside seat of Wentworth … Former state minister Michael Yabsley and the president of the Point Piper branch, Jason Falinski, are spearheading a campaign by Sydney’s most outspoken merchant banker … Malcolm Turnbull … For two weeks they have ambushed the sitting member … Peter King … who prides himself on being “a good local member” … But the Turnbull camp believes Wentworth voters deserve something more … “No politician is perfect, but with Malcolm it will be thrills and spills all the way to the senior ministry,” said Andrew Parker … plying the phones, using the cocktail party circuit … Turnbull’s supporters have recruited close to 700 new members … An increasingly unhappy King has … stopped short of calling it branch stacking but remarked that “the Liberal Party has no need for Labor tactics” … A King supporter … argued there was a convention that first-term members were immune from challenge. But Turnbull … assured her she was wrong. Of course … in 2000 (King) brought in hundreds of new members … and ambushed the sitting member … Andrew Thomson.

Labor tactics? Rowena Johns, Electoral Misconduct and Regulation of Political Parties, April 2001:

In May 2000 … Andrew Thomson, the Liberal member for … Wentworth … referred allegations of branch-stacking … to the NSW police … Liberal Party officials … discovered that a woman had been enrolled at the Rose Bay branch without her knowledge … According to Thomson … at least 40 memberships … had been “stacked” …

Ambition? AAP, October 6, 2003:

Malcolm Turnbull today defended himself against allegations of branch stacking in the bitter battle for … Wentworth. He said … King … must realise competition was a part of democracy … Asked if he had ambitions to be PM, Mr Turnbull replied: … “I don’t have a burning ambition for any one particular office.”

Mixed metaphor of the week? Pauline Hanson, The Bolt Report on Sky News, August 24:

They have to cut immigration numbers. It’s the white elephant in the room.