KEY POINTS:
Communications specialist Clare Curran announced yesterday she will enter the running to be Labour candidate for Dunedin South.
The announcement ended weeks of speculation about 47-year-old Ms Curran's plans and brought to four the number seeking selection.
The others are sitting MP David Benson-Pope, Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union national president Don Pryde and restaurateur Olivier Lequeux.
Ms Curran, the Otago Southland regional representative on the Labour Party's ruling council and an active member of the Dunedin South Labour Electorate Committee, would not be drawn into commenting on how she might fare against competition for the seat.
She emphasised that it was "up to the democratic process".
Her decision to stand had been an "evolving thing", she said.
She had made the decision with her partner, Australian Doug Lilly.
"If I didn't have the support of family I couldn't do it," said Ms Curran, who is the mother of twin 7-year-old boys, although she admitted those in the wider family had viewed her decision with a "mixture of pride and horror".
Their horror related to their concern that politics could be a rough business.
Ms Curran, who came to Dunedin when she was 10, has spent much of her working life in Australia, returning to live in New Zealand when her boys were two. Ms Curran and Mr Lilly run a small communications/public relations company from home.
- Otago Daily Times
