Too little support for Little?

Understatement of the week from Trans Tasman:

It would be a serious blow to Little’s ambitions if he had to rely on a list placing to get him into Parliament.

It’s referring to a poll in which Jonathan Young gained 41% and Labour’s recently ex-president gained only 25%.

However, David Farrar sees some light for Little:

His 25.3 per cent on the electorate vote is more rosy if you accept Labour’s party vote figure of 16.5 per cent. That is saying that for every 10 Labour party voter, Little is picking up 15 votes. And by contrast Jonathan Young is picking up nine votes for every 10 National Party voters.

Now if the party vote turned out to be the same as in 2008, then applying the above ratios would have Young on 46 per cent and Little on 48 per cent.

This is not to say that this poll shows Little ahead of Young. It does not. But it does show that he is attracting more electorate votes than his party, and that if Labour lifts its party vote, then the seat would be closer than this poll suggests at first glance.

Little has a reasonably safe place on the Labour list but that would be seen as a second best option.

All MPs are supposed to be equal but in the eyes of many electorate MPs are more equal than those who enter parliament on the party list.