Is Cactus Act's prickly solution? Part deux ...

We blogged a couple of weeks ago about rumours that Cactus Kate was about to become an Act candidate. Not all rumours come to fruition, but it seems that this one was well-founded - Audrey Young reports:

Cathy Odgers, the author of the acerbic website Cactus Kate, is expected to be approved today as an Act candidate - one of the reasons sitting MP Heather Roy is likely to today announce she will stand down at this year's election.

Cathy Odgers is a corporate lawyer who lives in Hong Kong.

She is back in New Zealand and this week attended a private surprise party for former leader Rodney Hide in his favoured Newmarket haunt, the Mecca cafe and bar.

This is about to get very interesting - read on:

Cathy Odgers' blog, Cactus Kate, has been scathing about people in the party she believed had been disloyal to Mr Hide and undermined his leadership.

However, after the coup in April, she called for the infighting to stop and for the party to unite behind Dr Brash.

Heather Roy backed Dr Brash's leadership coup against Mr Hide in April.

She had hoped to regain her position as deputy leader, which she held until the breakdown in her relationship with Mr Hide came to a head last year.

Heather Roy went out on a limb last year in her feud with Rodney Hide, and it has cost them both dearly. Neither will have a place in the next Parliament, it seems. On the other hand, Cathy Odgers will appeal to a different demographic; one with which Act has struggled to gain traction in the past:

Cathy Odgers is expected to address one of Act's weaknesses, its appeal to women and especially to young women.

Now, we've never had the pleasure of meeting Cathy in person, although we have had contact via social media a couple of times when a mutual acquaintence was in need of help. She doesn't suffer fools, but is intelligent and articulate as some of her blog-posts on financial matters have demonstrated. One of Act's traditional problems has been its inability to clearly communicate its message and vision to the electorate; could she be the one to do it?

She will of course have to bridge the gap between blogger and political aspirant, and as Trevor Mallard has shown in recent times, that can be a challenge. We'll close with a few quaotes that Audrey Young has found which may not endear Ms Odgers to some of her colleagues:

Cactus Kate:

* On Hilary Calvert, list MP, after she responded to outrage over caged chickens by saying Act cared about people ahead of "silly little chickens":

Earth to Act - Throw Calvert Overboard!!!

I just can't take it any more. What barrel did Act scrape to find this mad woman?

I personally cannot wait to rank my Act Party list candidates. Calvert will not be on my list at all. Another piss poor quality female candidate #fail. Little wonder we have to revert to grumpy old men.

* On John Banks:

Banks is just awful. He makes you want to consider voting Len Brown. Two-time losing mayoral candidate Banks is political desperation at its finest ... his political philosophy isn't even close to Act's.

* On Don Brash:

Brash will not survive to this November unless the party is staunchly united behind him like we've never been behind any leader before and he is managed by some sort of political genius.

Interesting times await the Act Party, anmd we wish Cathy every success in the apparent new phase of her life. One thing is guaranteed; it's not going to be dull!