Dunedin North Labour candidate David Clark (left) with his
brother Ben who will be confirmed tonight as Labour's North
Shore candidate. Photo supplied.
Brothers David and Ben Clark will be on the campaign
trail together for the Labour Party from tonight when Ben is
confirmed as the Labour candidate for North Shore.
David Clark (37) has already won the nomination for the safe
Labour seat of Dunedin North but his brother Ben (35) faces a
much harder task as he takes on Defence Minister Wayne Mapp
who holds a majority of 14,000 for National in North Shore.
While David faced stiff competition in Dunedin North, Ben was
the only nomination in North Shore and with the support of
the Labour Electorate Committee, of which he is a member, he
will have his confirmation meeting tonight.
David Clark said yesterday that brothers in politics was not
unknown.
"Ben has been amused by recent comparisons to the Miliband
brothers in Britain. It's a story of the younger brother, Ed,
beating his older brother, David, to the Labour Party
leadership."
While the Milibands were the first brothers to sit in the
same cabinet in the United Kingdom, neither Clark brother was
yet in Parliament.
David said his brother was hoping some of the magic
associated with the (Helen) Clark name would rub off at the
next election.
David said their parents were a "bit surprised" their sons
had taken up differing careers but had both ended up in the
same political space.
Their mother, a GP in Otara for 20 years, had retired but was
continuing her community work with domestic violence
intervention and training, David said.
Their father was a partner in an East Tamaki manufacturing
business he and a partner started in the 1980s.
dene.mackenzie@odt.co.nz.
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