The reason the Left is jeering at Mirabella If you are puzzled by the Left's cheering at the defeat of Liberal frontbencher Sophie Mirabella in Indi at the hands of a Nationals-backed "rural independent" here's the reason. It's not just that Mirabella is a conservative. It's that independent Cathy McGowan is not. Anthony Coralluzzo tried to warn: Cathy McGowan is a Greens-like candidate of the far-left, but that's not the image the "independent" candidate wants out there in the electorate... The origin of McGowan's campaign is a small group calling itself "Voice 4 Indi" (V4I), which was formed in September 2012. The group is full of activists of the far-left. There's Anthony Lane, a green activist who was the inaugural chair of the Wangaratta Sustainability Network. The organisation is a recipient of taxpayer's money, and advocates a 100% renewable energy mandate. They even go so far as to say "It's criminal to keep supporting non-renewable energy..." Rowan O'Hagan is also a green activist, and was founder and secretary of the Wangaratta Sustainability Network. She ... pushes for cultural change to achieve "a more socially just global environment..." Alana Johnson is a board member of the ultra-feminist Victorian Women's Trust, who were vocal supporters of Julia Gillard.. Johnson actually went further on her twitter account and blamed the whole of Australia for Gillard's demise, saying she was ashamed of the country. There is also a fellow called Ben McGowan, who I presume is related to Cathy McGowan. He is a green activist, a supporter of "sustainability" (Agenda 21), and a believer in the theory of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming. He has tweeted his support for socialism, and also his opposition to free-market economics, calling it "nonsense..." And then, of course, there is Cathy McGowan herself who, with Mr Lane, was co-convener of the organisation. That's right, the "grassroots organisation" that chose to endorse Cathy McGowan, was started by Cathy McGowan. Much more at the link, including more links. That said, McGowan has far more class than some of the Left supporting her: Cathy McGowan...says her electorate and Australian politics more broadly are not being well served by the vitriol being heaped on Ms Mirabella as she confronts a slow, humiliating, political demise... When the Labor Party intervened midway into the Indi campaign, funding a series of robocalls carrying a quote from Tony Windsor in which he gives Ms Mirabella the "nasty prize" from the last parliament, Ms McGowan objected on two grounds: that negative, Canberra politics were intruding on her campaign and that the ALP was sticking its beak where it didn't belong. More recently, the protracted Indi count, which is now expected to result in Ms McGowan winning by between 300 and 500 votes, has been accompanied by incessant retweeting of two-year-old stories about Ms Mirabella's dispute with the family of her former partner, the late constitutional lawyer Colin Howard, and about her involvement in a notorious rally in Canberra... I have got great sympathy for her, I really do. It is not about taking revenge and it is not about being nasty. You need to respect people who stand for office. Contrast that with the sliming of Mirabella by The Age.