Hi all,

Still hanging in there?

Good, because we have a ways to go yet.

I’m still trying to get my head around having seven candidates running for Hume.

Partly because that’s a lot of candidates.

Partly because most of the seven left their announcements so late as to seriously limit their chances to promote their message.

And partly because several have more or less admitted they don’t intend to actually campaign for the seat.

I can understand them being overawed and pragmatic about their chances. Take the betting field created by Sportsbet, which we have mentioned before, that gives the following odds: Liberal ($1.02), Labor ($5.50), Any other candidate ($101). And polling backs the idea Labor and Liberal are the only realistic chances.

Still you’d be forgiven for thinking anyone standing for an election to any position, whether it was a likely chance or not, would give it a red hot go. Let’s hope all candidates do.

Meanwhile, to those who are giving it a shake, and Alby Schultz issued a press release advising us of something coming up in the future.

That’s right. Re-read that if you have to. I’ll wait till you catch up.

You read that right. Alby, who may have done many hard yards and much campaigning this election, but who has NOT been a fan of advising us what he’d be doing or where he’d be going in advance, informed us that Julie Bishop, deputy leader of the Opposition, will be in Goulburn on Saturday August 14.

While in Goulburn, she will be meeting with local residents and businesses on Saturday afternoon and that evening will be Alby’s guest at a cocktail function being held at Michael and Judith Basille’s Lavender Farm at Laggan.

In all seriousness, that’s all we ask… some details on what you’re up to, what announcements you make, and where you’ll be so people can meet you, so thanks for that piece of info.

It’s also one of the first big guns rolled out this election so maybe her visit will accompany some local announcement? Wouldn’t be the strangest thing to happen in an election.