The Canberra Times has been given the tip that Tharwa’s crotchety old fire captain Val Jeffery is going to run for the Liberal Party in Brindabella.
In 2008 Val pulled in 6.5 of the vote running for the minor Community Alliance Party and is still highly regarded for saving Tharwa in the 2003 firestorm (where the rest of Canberra’s firefighters performed less admirably in the opinion of many).
The interesting thing here is that Brindabella is where the Liberals hope to pick up a third seat (out of five) with their Zed/Brendan dream team. So a high profile candidate with a strong personal vote would appear to be a key plank of that strategy.