Talk:Parachute candidate

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Elections and Referendums, an ongoing effort to improve the quality of, expand upon and create new articles relating to elections, electoral reform and other aspects of democratic decision-making. For more information, visit our project page.Elections and ReferendumsWikipedia:WikiProject Elections and ReferendumsTemplate:WikiProject Elections and ReferendumsElections and Referendums articles

Politics Low‑importance

	Politics portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Politics, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of politics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.PoliticsWikipedia:WikiProject PoliticsTemplate:WikiProject Politicspolitics articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

POV Check

I don't believe that there are any legitimate NPOV concerns with this article in its current state.

A parachute candidate, also known as a carpetbagger in the United States, is a political term for an election candidate who does not live in the area he is running to represent. The allegation is thus that he is being "parachuted in" for the job by a desparate political party which has no reliable domestic talent to use.

While usage of the word on Wikipedia could never be of neutral point of view (i.e. if we said, "Hillary Clinton and Alan Keyes are both parachute candidates"), the article itself is factual. The meaning of the pejorative has been given concisely without so much as an example or other kind of veiled attack. I see no reason why the POV of the article should be suspect.

On an unrelated note, is this a British term? Identifying "carpetbagger" as the American equivalent seems to suggest such. --BDD 23:10, 22 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

OK, are we done here? If there aren't any objections, I'll remove the pov-check template in a few days. Insomniacity 19:42, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC)

It's used widely in Canada. Samaritan 04:16, 5 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've added "and has little connection to the area" to the description as a clarification. In jurisdictions where a representative needn't live in their district, non-residency may not be an issue if the representative lives nearby and is well-connected to the area. This scenario is common in urban areas where districts are often only a handful of square km. Obviously this is different from being from another state! Ianking 07:59, 9 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Carpet Bagger vs. Parachute Candidate

I think the term Carpetbagger is more common, and certainly more historical, as it is a term that goes back one hundred years or more. Parachute Candidate seems a little new to have the article be titled such. I would like the article to be Carpetbagger and have Parachute Candidate redirect to it. 208.203.4.140 01:26, 13 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I was going to suggest the same thing. I see that I am responding to a 4 year old post. Maybe I will just go ahead and make the redirect then since it makes sense. Jaque Hammer (talk) 18:52, 3 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Greetings, everyone. I've started this discussion over on the Carpetbagger article's talk page. Your opinions are welcome. Cheers! ➢ Bgpaulus <small-caps>(WORDS & DEEDS)</small-caps> 12:05, 15 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Expansion?

I'd love to see this article expanded, considering how common this practice is in Britain (and to some extent in Canada). As an example, virtually none of the Labour Party's leadership are actually from the constituencies they represent. Sadly, I don't know enough on the topic to make these additions myself. -- MichiganCharms (talk) 04:54, 9 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Australia

In this country only candidates from Party HQ who overrule local party choices are said to parachute; they might be said to "shoo-in".

Candidates from other seats and other states who are nominated "just to maximize the vote" do not really a name; remember that both upper and lower houses are elected by preferential voting and cannot split the vote.

Indeed non-constituency candidates allow up and coming candidates to get "blooded" at unwinnable seats, being promoted to winnable at a subsequent election if they do well; and example of tis is Margaret Thatcher. -----MountVic127 (talk) 08:36, 16 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Margaret_Thatcher

Political Career

In the 1950 and 1951 general elections, Thatcher was the defeated Conservative candidate for the Labour seat of Dartford.
She lost on both occasions to Norman Dodds, but reduced the Labour majority by 6,000, and then a further 1,000.[43]
In 1954, Thatcher was defeated when she sought selection to be the Conservative Party candidate for the Orpington by-election of January 1955.
Thatcher began looking for a Conservative safe seat and was selected as the candidate for Finchley in April 1958 (narrowly beating Ian Montagu Fraser).\
She was elected as MP for the seat after a hard campaign in the 1959 election. ----MountVic127 (talk) 08:55, 16 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Opposite of parachute

"Free fall" ? ----MountVic127 (talk) 08:57, 16 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Not a "dream run"