Wollongong councillor Ann Martin has backflipped on a pledge not to challenge sitting MP Noreen Hay and will contest ALP preselection for the seat of Wollongong next month.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Cr Martin has thrown her name into the mix alongside Paul Scully, the chief operating officer at the University of Wollongong's Australian Institute for Innovative Materials, to take on Ms Hay.
Labor Party preselection nominations for the seat closed on Friday, with the successful candidate to be determined by a ballot on December 6.
Cr Martin told the Mercury on Monday she would be "fairly surprised" if she won.
She said she felt good about her track record working for the community and the council.
"I know I've said publicly that I would withdraw if Noreen ran and at this stage, I've retracted that because I feel, in talking to people, they're encouraging me," she said.
"I'm prepared to hang in there and, frankly, I don't think it's going to hurt Noreen."
Cr Martin said "the more choice people have, the more chance we have to get it right".
"Clearly I'm a very different person to both the other candidates ... particularly because I'm on the left of the ALP and the other two candidates are on the right," she said.
"I think there needs, always, to be the voice of dissent and difference and I think that's what I represent."
The sentiment was echoed by Mercury readers at the weekend, with 72 per cent of 518 respondents to an online poll saying Ms Hay shouldn't recontest the seat.
More than 60 people also chose to air their views on the Mercury website.
"Fresh ideas and a more youthful perspective is exactly what we need for the region. I don't want another four years of being disappointed with Noreen's lack of results," Regina Phellange posted.