NOT only did Nationals candidate Katrina Hodgkinson hope to secure the new seat of Cootamundra in the state election at the weekend, she wanted to make sure she beat her record of visiting 26 polling booths in the process.
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And while she achieved the second ambition by one booth with seconds to spare, her election win was a shoo-in after safely securing 70.7 per cent of first preference votes as at 5pm yesterday.
With 53 of 57 polling booths counted, representing 63 per cent of the total electorate vote, the results have, however, shown a 9.5 per cent swing to Country Labor from the 2011 state election.
Ms Hodgkinson spent Saturday travelling over 800 kilometres visiting 27 polling booths in the large electorate, starting from Cowra, moving south west to Young, then west, south and east, eventually finishing in Cootamundra.
There she met with supporters at her Parker Street campaign office to watch the results coming in.
In celebrating her win, Ms Hodgkinson said her primary aim was to continue winning more funding back to country areas.
She thanked all her supporters for their tireless work and said her win would not have been possible without the support of her husband Jack Saeck.
Among the supporters present was former NSW deputy premier Ian Armstrong, who Ms Hodgkinson credited with inspiring her to join the Nationals back in 1995.
Mr Armstrong congratulated Ms Hodgkinson on another convincing win and reminded branch members that the work was not yet over.
Country Labor candidate Charlie Sheahan also congratulated Ms Hodgkinson and thanked all his supporters.
In particular he thanked his campaign office volunteers Noel Wilson and Merrilyn Carney, granddaughter of a founding member of the ALP.
Mr Sheahan said he was happy to have played his part in raising the local profile of the ALP, and hopes now to get a local branch off the ground.
“I’m going to keep pursuing, keep lobbying, and keep Katrina honest and hold her to her promises,” Mr Sheahan said.
Gundagai Hospital and Grong Grong School will remain top of his list, and for Young, he’s keen to see a prostate nurse in the town, as well as Griffith and Wagga.
Mr Sheahan said he spent Sunday cleaning out the campaign office and had put the “gone fishing, thank you” sign on the door.
“I’m more than happy with the result, we didn’t have much of a budget to spend, this was our first time, we polled well in some places and we managed to achieve a good overall swing,” he said.
