Kennett ‘no’ to tilt at Town Hall’s top job
Mex Cooper
The Age
September 23, 2008
After much soul searching, Jeff Kennett has ruled out a tilt for the Melbourne Lord Mayor’s job. Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett has ruled out running for the position of Melbourne’s Lord Mayor… Serving Lord Mayor John So is yet to declare whether he will stand for re-election. Nominations close on October 28 and the City of Melbourne elections will be held via postal ballot in November.
Coincidentally:
Campaign promotes Mick Gatto for mayor
Mary Bolling
Herald Sun
September 03, 2008
A SPOOF campaign nominating underworld identity Mick Gatto to be Melbourne’s mayor has jumped the tracks.
Yarra Trams seized half a dozen “Mick for mayor” postcards from a route 86 tram on Friday.
The cards purport to be distributed by the “Committee to Elect Domenic (sic) Gatto” and to be “authorised by D Hinch”.
But neither Gatto nor his 3AW critic are laughing.
“I don’t know anything about it,” Gatto said yesterday.
“Maybe I would (run) if they asked me, but I’ve never heard about it before.
“It’s a joke. Why else would it have Derryn Hinch’s name on it?” he said.
Hinch was also in the dark about the postcards, which ask Melburnians to send suggestions for a Gatto campaign to replace Mayor John So in November’s council elections to 3AW’s mailing address.
“I’d say it’s somebody with a sick sense of humour. What can you say? There are some fruit loops out there,” he said.
“I would just hope, if he were elected as lord mayor, he’d be an absent one.”
The card, bearing a council logo with a pair of guns inserted into the image, describes Gatto’s “dedication to law and order” and bears a bogus endorsement from a former policeman who was investigated in relation to a murder.
“In all the years I have known Mr Gatto, I have always found him to be a man of great honesty and integrity,” it reads.
The cards also take a swipe at council, saying Gatto’s “first act as lord mayor will be to reform Melbourne City Council’s electoral laws in order to bring an end to the corruption that plagues them so”.
