Lady Luck backs fedgling council candidate

that they have to vote, and they’ll just go top to top to bottom.”

Mr Kingsley said the feld of 17 candidates, while large was not unusual in the Clarence Valley as there had been 16 candidates for the 2021 ballot and 21 in 2016.

“Last time there was around 12 in the feld that had a chance,” he said.

“There were a few who I thought might have done better with a better campaign and a few who were never in it.”

He said this year’s feld looked similar, although it does include a former councillor in Andrew Baker and a couple of candidates from the operational side of

By Karina Smith

Woodburn Public School has come home triumphant from the 2024 Boccia Primary State Finals.

Boccia is a sport organised by the NSW Sports Unit for students with disabilities.

We entered a team from our support unit (Autism class) into the Ballina championships during term 2 this year.

We practiced with a team of six players but on the day our team only consisted of three players.

This meant we had no subs and our team of three would have to play all games.

All other teams had at least 2-3 subs.

Our little team, council in former senior director Des Schroder and former Grafton City Council general manager Ray Smith.

Mr Kingsley said all three had their chances especially Andrew Baker, although he was most confdent that Mr Schroder would get up.

“Des is well known from his council days and has done a bit in the community since he retired,” Mr Kingsley said.

“He’s got really involved on the Jacaranda committee and he’s on the board of the Country University Centre and Clarence Valley Anglican School.”

Mr Kingsley said Mr Smith was another person who would have a strong following from his role on Grafton City Council and his involvement with Rotary, but did think he might not be top of mind for some voters.

“I just don’t know that Ray’s got the most current profle, so he’s gonna have to campaign hard, and he’s gonna have to be preference well,” he said.

Mr Kingsley said there was a big difference between the 2021 poll and this year’s vote.

“In 2021, fve of us, myself, Richie (Williamson), Andrew, (Baker), Arthur (Lysaught), and Jim (Simmons) didn’t run and that basically put about 13,000 votes up for grabs,” he said.

He said this time around most of the incumbents would likely be returned, but preferences would be important.

He said a candidate like Yamba’s Lynne Cairns could get good support in her community, but that might not translate to votes in Grafton.

“We’ve seen it in previous elections where a candidate has a good local following, but not enough to reach a quota, then doesn’t have a big enough profle to get interest from outside that area,” he said.

“There are a couple of candidates that could have that problem this