Series 02: Alan Gibson Stewart papers, 1987-1989 - Page 561
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have helped me had been replaced by another who would favour Meers.
In the draw, Langworthy came first, Stewart second, and Meers third and last.
We discovered that Patty Langworthy was a twenty-two year old secretary from Matraville, a distant suburb in Sydney's south. It was said that she admitted knowing nothing about politics, that she had agreed to run after her brother had suggested her name to the Pro-Life organisation in Melbourne. No doubt the devious Mrs Tigue had played a major part in the arrangement.
Obviously pleased by this sudden turn of events, Meers wrote an open letter to the Daily headed: "Thank you Michael"; showing public gratitude for Darby's withdrawal; and at the same time lauding his father for his "high principles and devotion to local causes."
While lending her name to Mrs Tighe's cause, Langworthy apparently did not feel obliged to take an active role on the campaign circuit. She was not to be seen at public functions and I was not given an opportunity of meeting her.
Her first handbill was distributed the next Sunday outside Catholic churched in the electorate. Showing signs of hasty preparation, this cheap piece of paper portrayed a how-to-vote which was numbered 1, 2, 3, downward -- the donkey vote. Whoever had drafted it had not yet been told that I was the villain, to be put