Editorial: Craig Foss gets timely promotion

What a great pre-election present the Prime Minister has given Tukituki MP Craig Foss.
Having a greater public profile and the endorsement of the PM will be a very welcome boost a few months out from a general election.
Foss has taken over from the retiring John Carter as Minister of Civil Defence, Minister for Senior Citizens, Minister for Racing (a portfolio that's never had quite the same profile since Winston Peters held it), and associate Minister of Local Government and Commerce.
While the newly sworn-in Minister still carries the qualifier "outside Cabinet", there is nothing lightweight about those portfolios - Civil Defence in particular.
And Local Government is an interesting role for Foss: he's made no bones about wanting to see a governance shake-up in Hawke's Bay, while the Government's made clear it has little appetite for more local body reform.
Will Foss need to tone down his support for a united Bay? It seems unlikely, given he and neighbouring Napier MP Chris Tremain have openly backed reform, and both pitch themselves as "Hawke's Bay MPs".
In fact, they spend so much time ranging across each other's electorates in the name of "Backing the Bay", I wouldn't be surprised if they've forgotten there are electoral boundaries between Hastings and Napier. Having built a reputation as a Hawke's Bay double act, Foss's promotion will be good news for Tremain too.
But not for their opponents in the region, who are going to have to work that much harder to get some traction come November.
Stuart Nash, Labour list MP, has been pushing hard to put himself forward as a real prospect for Napier, but he's not a double act like his opponents from National.
Julia Haydon-Carr, Labour candidate for Tukituki, has been quiet in the media so far, although when Labour leader Phil Goff was in town a few weeks ago he assured me she was very active at a grassroots level.
She will need to be.
Contesting Tukituki was always going to be a hard task, but it just got even harder.