LIB 6.1%
Incumbent MP
Matt Cowdrey, since 2018.
Geography
Western suburbs of Adelaide. Colton covers the suburbs of Fulham, Fulham Gardens, Grange, Henley Beach, Henley Beach South, Kidman Park, Lockleys and West Beach.
Redistribution
Colton shifted north, losing Glenelg North to Morphett and gaining Grange from Lee. These changes reduced the Liberal margin from 7.9% to 6.1%.
History
Colton has existed since the 1993 election, and is the only seat to have always been held by the sitting government since that time.
Steve Condous, the lord mayor of Adelaide, won the seat in 1993 for the Liberal Party. He retained the seat by a narrow margin in 1997.
In 2002, Condous retired and was replaced by the ALP’s Paul Caica. Caica held the seat for four terms, and retired in 2018.
Liberal candidate Matt Cowdrey won Colton in 2018.
- Matt Cowdrey (Liberal)
- Deb Cashel (Greens)
- Paul Alexandrides (Labor)
Assessment
Colton is a reasonably safe Liberal seat, and would need a substantial swing to change hands.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Matt Cowdrey | Liberal | 11,685 | 47.6 | -2.4 | 46.2 |
| Angela Vaughan | Labor | 7,733 | 31.5 | -7.7 | 33.2 |
| Jassmine Wood | SA-Best | 3,459 | 14.1 | +14.1 | 13.8 |
| Paul Petherick | Greens | 1,404 | 5.7 | -1.7 | 5.4 |
| Ted Evans | Dignity | 271 | 1.1 | +1.1 | 0.9 |
| Others | 0.4 | ||||
| Informal | 808 | 3.2 |
2018 two-party-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Matt Cowdrey | Liberal | 14,211 | 57.9 | +4.0 | 56.1 |
| Angela Vaughan | Labor | 10,341 | 42.1 | -4.0 | 43.9 |
Booths in Colton have been divided into three areas: east, north and south.
The Liberal Party won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote in all three areas, ranging from 51.4% in the north to 59.2% in the south.
| Voter group | SAB prim % | LIB 2PP % | Total votes | % of votes |
| North | 12.9 | 51.4 | 7,612 | 31.6 |
| South | 12.9 | 59.2 | 5,524 | 23.0 |
| East | 14.7 | 57.2 | 4,981 | 20.7 |
| Other votes | 15.2 | 58.5 | 5,940 | 24.7 |
Election results in Colton at the 2018 South Australian state election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for the Liberal Party, Labor and SA-Best.
Colton’s status as a bellwether goes back to 1970, when it was known as Henley Beach. It’s not getting a lot of attention this time as the redistribution before last moved it well to the Liberal side of the pendulum, only partially reversed at the latest redistribution. To retain its bellwether status, Colton needs either a returned Marshall govt or a big Labor win.