Advance Summary
1. Voting on the Clarence City Council in 2022-6 was much less factional than on Hobart council, with also far fewer seriously contested motions.
2. The overwhelming feature of Clarence council voting patterns in this term is not a right vs left axis but rather the tendency of certain councillors (particularly Richard James) to dissent more frequently than others, while most others seem to vote in a more consensus-like manner even if their views may differ somewhat.
3. To the extent that there are groupings on the current council there might be considered to have been a slightly right-leaning grouping containing Mayor Brendan Blomeley, Deputy Mayor Allison Ritchie, Daniel Hulme, Wendy Kennedy and Emma Goyne. There is also a left-leaning grouping containing the two endorsed Greens Beth Warren and Jade Darko, and debatably Bree Hunter.
4. Heather Chong does not fit easily into either grouping as she often votes with the right-leaning grouping but also often votes with one member of the left-ish grouping (Hunter).
5. Removing votes involving the most frequent dissenter (James) does not create a much clearer left-right picture, and indeed shows that the council more has some pairs of councillors who often vote with each other, rather than strong clusters.
