OPINION: Sam Uffindell, I think, has hit the end of the road with his political career.
Where there's smoke there can be fire. When the smoke rings keep coming -- that indicates the emergence of a pattern of behaviour, however long ago.
And that, in the lead-up to an election becomes a major distraction.
Late last night, a story broke on RNZ of a young woman who flatted with Uffindell in Otago. She spoke of her fear, including one night when she says he trashed the flat, banged down her door, yelled obscenities at her and forced her to jump out of her bedroom window.
It's perhaps her father's words that are the most damning. He travelled to Dunedin to get his daughter who he said was 'Seriously upset'.
"The flat itself was completely trashed. There wasn't a stick of furniture left. There was no crockery left. There were no handles left on anything. It had all been broken."
The woman said she was traumatised by the event, and - quote - "My stomach would absolutely flip and drop if I saw him".
And a year out from the election, these allegations will keep rolling in.
The new National party president, Sylvia Wood, has arrived in the role and her feet have immediately hit the floor.
She was told of the new allegations late last night and is in the throws of creating the parameters of the investigation. Christopher luxon says the investigation will take two weeks and will be overseen by Maria Dew QC.
That's important. Fail fast. If there's an issue, get on top of it quickly, get the facts, make a decision, and then move forward.
Standing Uffindell down, as Luxon has done… Well, there was no other option.
But - Uffindell's situation has triggered two key issues here. It's likely there will now be another by-election in Tauranga. That's expensive, the good people of Tauranga will be fatigued, and depending on how well National manages the narrative around this, you could see something of a protest vote -- perhaps a shift towards act in the blue safe seat.
But also, it speaks to a fundamental lack of rigour in National's appointment process. How do they vet their candidates? How in-depth is the vetting process? The reference checks? The character checks?
Because national's failure in this space is likely to be an expensive one.
The electoral commission suggests it costs about a million dollars to run a by-election. A million.
And right now, Uffindell's exit looks inevitable. And that exit will be costly both politically to National, and financially to taxpayers.
