Monday, November 06, 2006

Majorities and the drinking age

The Keep It 18 campaign have sent me an interesting spreadsheet, compiled from Parliament's electorate profiles and comparing the number of voters aged 18 - 22 at the next election to the size of the sitting MP's majority at the last. It's a fairly crude analysis, but 23 of 69 electorate MPs are vulnerable to a significant swing amongst young voters, and four MPs - Bob Clarkson (Tauranga), Steve Chadwick (Rotorua), Darren Hughes (Otaki),and (irony of ironies) Martin Gallagher - are vulnerable if the swing is less than 10%. Of these, only Gallagher backs raising the age. Of those vulnerable to a 15% swing in the youth vote, Mark Burton (Taupo), Nanaia Mahuta (Tainui) and Pita Sharples (Tamaki-Makaurau) are in the "don't know" column, Craig Foss (Tukituki) backs an increase, while Anne Tolley (East Coast) wants to see a split purchasing age. These might be people worth targeting.

Speaking of targeting, I've also set up a pledge to contact MPs on this issue. I'm not being particularly ambitious - I'm only after 10 people to join me - but the pledge is open until Friday, and people can sign up even after it has been filled. FWIW, I've already done my end - I sent out a bunch of letters to undecided MPs on Saturday.

1 comment:

  1. Yes but what is the level of support for raising purchase age to 20 year among 20-22 year olds?

    ReplyDelete

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