Cheltenham – SA 2014

ALP 16.0%

Incumbent MP
Jay Weatherill, since 2002.

Geography
Northwestern Adelaide. Cheltenham covers the suburbs of Alberton, Albert Park, Athol Park, Cheltenham, Findon, Hendon, Pennington, Queenstown, Royal Park, Woodville, Woodville North, Woodville South, Woodville West and parts of Port Adelaide and Rosewater. Most of the electorate lies in the Charles Sturt council area, as well as a small part of the Port Adelaide Enfield area.

Map of Cheltenham’s 2010 and 2014 boundaries. 2010 boundaries marked as red lines, 2014 boundaries marked as white area. Click to enlarge.
Map of Cheltenham’s 2010 and 2014 boundaries. 2010 boundaries marked as red lines, 2014 boundaries marked as white area. Click to enlarge.

Redistribution
Cheltenham gained the balance of Findon from Croydon, and lost the remainder of Seaton to Lee. The ALP’s margin was cut from 16.1% to 6.0%.

History
Cheltenham has existed since the 2002 election. Cheltenham was a new name for Price, which had existed since 1985.

Murray De Laine won Price at the 1985 election. When the electorate was renamed Cheltenham, De Laine was challenged for Labor Party preselection by Jay Weatherill.

De Laine resigned from the ALP in 2001, and contested the seat as an independent, polling 9.7% and losing to Weatherill.

Weatherill was appointed to the ministry following the 2002 election, and served in the ministry through the 2006 and 2010 elections.

After the 2010 election, Weatherill challenged ALP deputy leader Kevin Foley unsuccessfully.

Following further setbacks in the polls, the ALP’s factional leaders backed Weatherill to take over from Mike Rann in 2011, and he became Premier in October 2011.

Candidates
Sitting Labor MP Jay Weatherill is running for re-election. The Liberal Party is running Jack Batty. The Greens are running Rebecca Galdies. Family First are running Alex Tennikoff.

Assessment
Cheltenham is a very safe Labor seat.

2010 result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing
Jay Weatherill ALP 11,326 56.2 -6.9
James Bourke LIB 4,912 24.4 +7.2
Henrietta Child IND 1,551 7.7 +7.7
Paul Downton GRN 1,280 6.3 +0.5
Walter Shigrov FF 1,091 5.4 -4.1

2010 two-party-preferred result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing
Jay Weatherill ALP 13,328 66.1 -9.4
James Bourke LIB 6,833 33.9 +9.4
Polling places in Cheltenham at the 2010 state election. Findon in yellow, North in red, Royal Park in green, Woodville in blue. Click to enlarge.
Polling places in Cheltenham at the 2010 state election. Findon in yellow, North in red, Royal Park in green, Woodville in blue. Click to enlarge.

Booth breakdown
Booths have been divided into four areas: Findon, Royal Park, Woodville, and booths at the northern end of the seat.

The ALP won a majority in all four areas, ranging from 63% in Findon to 69.6% in the north of the electorate.

Independent candidate Henrietta Child came third, ranging from 3.1% in Findon to 10.1% in Woodville.

Voter group IND % ALP 2PP % Total votes % of ordinary votes
North 9.76 69.64 5,821 34.53
Woodville 10.13 64.59 5,106 30.29
Royal Park 4.57 67.05 3,126 18.55
Findon 3.14 63.00 2,803 16.63
Other votes 5.16 63.45 4,167
Two-party-preferred votes in Cheltenham at the 2010 state election.
Two-party-preferred votes in Cheltenham at the 2010 state election.

2 COMMENTS

  1. I can see a swing to Labor happening here, as it’s the Premier’s seat, plus the large pro-Liberal swing in 2010, although Cheltenham’s 2010 swing wasn’t as large as Ramsay’s or Port Adelaide’s.

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