October 01, 2014
Greens’ campaigning crippled by crazies
Greens co-leader Russel Norman says Internet Mana was a guided missile aimed at the left.
He says he visited Kim Dotcom at the start of the year to try to convince the internet mogul not to start a political party.
The party went ahead under the leadership of former Alliance MP Laila Harre, who had worked during 2013 as the Greens’ Auckland-based issues director.
Mr Norman says dragging Mana leader Hone Harawira into the mess by convincing him to sell his first list position set the scene for disaster.
"I mean we had enough trouble with John Key standing up every day telling all his nonsense about us and on the other had we had to deal with these crazies. Having them on the radio and tv all the time talking their nonsense, it was like ‘Oh god,’ it did make it incredibly difficult to change the Government at that point because a lot of people who might have voted for Labour went ‘Oh god, if a vote for Labour means a vote for Dotcom and Harre, I’m not going to do that,'" he says
Mr Norman says Internet Mana’s party vote strategy was to spend $3 million trying to take votes from potential Green supporters.
FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH RUSSEL NORMAN CLICK ON THE LINK
http://www.waateanews.com/play_podcast?podlink=MjI2MTc=
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