Party presidents are normally backroom operators and I can't name the presidents of The Greens (they've probably got two) or ACT.
Their roles are, however, vital to the electoral success of any political party and they perform three crucial functions.
First, they oversee and heavily influence the selection of their party's election candidates, second, they are the primary fundraisers especially for election campaigns, and third, they are responsible for the on-ground organisation in the lead up to general elections and byelections.
I took candidate selection very seriously as under The Labour Party's rules the Party Council I headed had three out of six or seven votes on selection panels. I had a great team around me for three electoral cycles and with General Secretary Mike Smith and Senior Vice President Patricia Webster, we selected candidates like Grant Robertson, David Parker, Chris Hipkins and Jacinda Ardern.
There were no duds.
In the first Ardern Cabinet a majority of the Ministers were chosen by that team.
Though National Party presidents don't have a vote on selection panels they do have a powerful influence in vetting and rejecting prospective candidates. In practice they can and do stop a political aspirant's career in its tracks.
Peter Goodfellow takes a very close interest in candidate selection and has been criticised for turning up at selections for any remotely winnable seat.
His preferences have proven badly flawed again and again and caused continual embarrassment to the parliamentary party over recent years with such clangers as Jami-Lee Ross, Andrew Falloon, Hamish Walker and Todd Barclay.
Another of Goodfellow's many humiliating errors was Jake Bezzant, the National candidate who managed to lose Paula Bennett's formerly rock-solid Upper Harbour Electorate in a 12,000 vote turn-around.
Before the election, Bezzant had been sprung for exaggeration on his CV, but Goodfellow favoured Bezzant's unconvincing explanation and allowed him to contest the seat.
Goodfellow and his board must take responsibility for throwing one grenade after another into the leadership of Simon Bridges, Todd Muller and Judith Collins.
Peter Goodfellow and his party, according to defeated presidential candidate, Sir John Carter, failed to reach their financial targets in election year, so even Goodfellow's reputation as a fundraiser was found wanting when his party needed it most.
The third task of a party president is to recruit, inspire and motivate a campaign force on the ground that supports candidates and is there to get the most challenging of its voters to the polls.
On Goodfellow's 12-year watch his party has visibly aged to the extent that the 2021 Annual Conference could have been mistaken for a Grey Power convention.
I have lived in a seat that has in the recent past produced National MPs, yet I have never been canvassed by that party and neither have any of my whanau who live in the electorate. By contrast I have been door knocked by the Greens once and Labour three times.
An infallible way to assess a Party's effectiveness on the ground is the special vote count and again National falls fatally short.
Unlike the 2020 poll, most New Zealand elections are close and often decided by special votes. When I began organising campaigns in 1978 it was assumed that National would always beat Labour in the special vote count which began after election night.
Under Goodfellow's watch the reverse situation has built up to the point that it is Labour that increases its election night margin with the addition of the special votes.
For evidence, look no further than Tukituki where Anna Lorck almost trebled her election night majority with the addition of the special votes and Whangarei where National's Deputy lost his seat on special votes to Emily Henderson.
Mike Williams grew up in Hawke's Bay. He is CEO of the NZ Howard League and a former Labour Party president. All opinions are his and not those of Hawke's Bay Today
