Wow. The Liberal Party Senate preselection process is tough, huh?
Someone has been doing their homework on the Senator and, after John Howard supported Senator Gichuhi's 3rd spot on the ticket, decided to utterly shred her reputation by dumping all the dirt in strategic order, one item each news cycle, to exact the most damage. And now people here who were singing her praises - because she's a social conservative - have turned on her. Bit of a fickle crowd.
The background to all this is that Adelaide city councillor Alex Antic was the conservative choice for the third slot. (Though under a citizenship cloud for his Serbian heritage.) Then along came conservative Gichuhi, who was already a senator with a national profile. And so should have got preference.
But she gave Cory Bernardi the flick (along with 97% of South Australians at the last state election) when her former party Family First folded and she was handed over like a possession to Bernardi's Conservatives and she said, more politely than my paraphrase, "Stuff that. The guy's an absolute loser. I'm going to the Libs!"
However, Bernardi is still controlling the the conservative extremists in the Liberal Party in SA. So a personal hell is being created for Gichuhi by fellow "Christians" in the Liberal Party.
(Of course the preference of the social conservatives for a white Serbian/Australian male over a black Kenyan/Australian female probably didn't figure at all...)
