Green Party candidate Susanne Ruthven has announced she's withdrawing from the Hutt South electorate race. Photo / Green Party
Green Party candidate Susanne Ruthven has announced she's withdrawing from the Hutt South electorate race. Photo / Green Party
Labour is hoping a new resignation from the Green Party will clear the way for them to scoop the Hutt South electorate.
Green Party candidate for the electorate, Susanne Ruthven, announced last night she was resigning, after taking a job in the public service, which would cause a conflict ofinterest.
Labour's Hutt South candidate Ginny Andersen said she was "genuinely sad" to see her Green opponent stand down.
"She's worked really hard, and I'm sad to see her go."
But Labour could make political mileage from the resignation.
"So that makes a definite difference in terms of making the margin stronger.
"But I just want to wish Susanne all the best.
"We've worked really closely over the past eight or nine months, so I just wish her all the best in her new job and I hope she does really well."
Ruthven, 36, is the third Green Party candidate to resign in recent days.
Kennedy Graham and David Clendon caused waves only a day earlier when they resigned over co-leader Metiria Turei's admission she lied to Winz while collecting a benefit in the 1990s.
Ruthven has emphatically denied her decision has anything to do with the controversy, saying only that her resignation was poor timing.
She's also denied it is part of a deal to deliver the electorate to Labour, saying she does not know if the party plans to replace her.
National candidate Chris Bishop is also standing in the Hutt South electorate.
Current Hutt South MP, Labour's Trevor Mallard, isn't standing for the September election.
But he's put his money on the Green Party putting up a new candidate to contest the electorate, even daring Newshub journalist Patrick Gower to make a $100 bet on the matter.
