ALP 8.8%
Incumbent MP
Leesa Vlahos, since 2010.
Geography
Northern fringe of Adelaide. The electorate includes parts of the Salisbury area, and rural areas north of Salisbury. Most of the population lies in Salisbury council area, along with sparsely-populated parts of Mallala and Playford council areas.
Redistribution
Taylor lost Lewiston to Schubert and Paralowie and Salisbury North to Ramsay, and gained Davoren Park and Smithfield Plains from Napier and Elizabeth North from Little Para. These changes cut the Labor margin from 11.6% to 8.8%.
History
The electorate of Taylor has existed since the 1993 election. Taylor has always been held by the ALP.
Taylor was first won in 1993 by the outgoing Premier, Lynn Arnold. Arnold had held the seat of Ramsay since 1985, and before that held Salisbury from 1979 to 1985.
Arnold had served as a minister from 1982 until his election as Premier in 1992. His predecessor, John Bannon, resigned after the collapse of the State Bank of South Australia.
Arnold lost the 1993 election in a landslide, and in 1994 resigned from Parliament.
The 1994 by-election was won by Trish White, running for the ALP. White was promoted to the Labor frontbench in 1995, and became a minister when the Rann Labor government was former after the 2002 election. She served as a minister until 2005, and was re-elected in Taylor in 2006.
White retired in 2010, and the ALP’s Leesa Vlahos won Taylor. Vlahos was re-elected in 2014.
Candidates
Sitting Labor MP Leesa Vlahos is leading the Labor ticket for the Legislative Council. Jon Gee is the sitting member for the neighbouring seat of Napier.
- Sonja Taylor (SA Best)
- Kate Randell (Greens)
- Danny Bradley (Conservatives)
- Sarika Sharma (Liberal)
- Jon Gee (Labor)
Assessment
Taylor is a reasonably safe Labor seat.
2014 election result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Leesa Vlahos | Labor | 10,723 | 51.0 | -4.0 | 47.2 |
| Alex Hyde | Liberal | 6,542 | 31.1 | +2.7 | 33.6 |
| Lenny Jessiman | Family First | 2,309 | 11.0 | +0.4 | 11.4 |
| Kirsten Wahlstrom | Greens | 1,448 | 6.9 | +1.1 | 7.0 |
| Dignity for Disability | 0.4 | ||||
| Nationals | 0.1 | ||||
| Others | 0.3 | ||||
| Informal | 895 | 4.1 |
2014 two-party-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Leesa Vlahos | Labor | 12,940 | 61.6 | -1.0 | 58.8 |
| Alexander Hyde | Liberal | 8,082 | 38.4 | +1.0 | 41.2 |
Booth breakdown
Booths in Taylor have been divided into three areas: north-east, south-east and west.
Labor won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote in all three areas, ranging from 53.4% in the west to 64% in the south-east.
The Family First vote ranged from 8.4% in the west to 14.9% in the south-east.
| Voter group | FF prim % | ALP 2PP % | Total votes | % of votes |
| West | 8.4 | 53.4 | 9,031 | 37.8 |
| South-East | 14.9 | 64.0 | 5,725 | 23.9 |
| North-East | 12.4 | 59.7 | 4,448 | 18.6 |
| Other votes | 12.0 | 55.4 | 4,710 | 19.7 |
Election results in Taylor at the 2014 SA state election
Click on the ‘visible layers’ box to toggle between two-party-preferred votes and Family First primary votes.
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My prediction: Every election has its upsets, and with a retiring MP, I think this could be a smokey SA Best gain.