The strong preference given, however, is for Liberal Democrats to back independent candidates. As FE chair and Party President Tim Farron wrote to regional parties:

Individual Liberal Democrats may support non party candidates. This is a continuation of the view that Liberal Democrats in government and parliament have been expressing as the legislation has gone through Westminster: that whilst effective accountability of the police is essential, it is imperative that operational policing does not become a political football.

The wording of the Federal Executive decision leaves open the option of helping to fund the campaigns of independent candidates and it has been made clear that, unless there is an official Lib Dem candidate, party members will be free to campaign for any “appropriate” independent candidate.

The use of “appropriate” provides a check against party members campaigning for an extreme candidate, such as one from the BNP, as members so doing could be expelled from the party. It also leaves open the question of whether in some contests different Liberal Democrat members may end up backing different candidates after the same post.

There was a lively debate and vote at the Federal Executive to decide on this policy which, as the party’s democratically accountable senior decision making body, is the right way to do things. But the tradition of such votes is that lists of who voted which way are not published – which means that when it comes to voting for members of the Federal Executive, the voters do not know some basic pieces of information about how the incumbents re-standing have acted whilst in office. However if, in the interests of transparency, any Federal Executive members wish to say which way they voted, by all means post a comment…

UPDATE: For more on the question of federal committee decision making and secrecy, see Should the way members of federal committees vote be public?

As previously covered, Lembit Opik has publicly declared his intention to go for the selection. Regular readers of this site will have seen how controversial that is amongst many Liberal Democrat members (along with other commenters on this site). He has some keen fans along with many ardent critics. The number of fans of his Mayor selection bid page on Facebook has moved up only slightly over the last week, to 185 at the time of writing.

Although no-one else has declared they are running for Mayor yet, there are several other names which frequently come up. Chatting to members around London in the last few weeks, many have said how, were it not for the party being in coalition, they would have liked to see Lynne Featherstone or Sarah Teather be the candidate. With both being ministers that is firmly off the agenda.

Susan Kramer’s run for Mayor in 2000 is the candidature remembered the most fondly by most people who have seen all three Lib Dem Mayor campaigns, but it would be a return to her past. Having been an MP in the interim, Susan Kramer would at least have a reason to argue why she might be a more successful Mayor candidate second time round. That would be a challenge too for Brian Paddick, who has a CV well suited for the role of Mayor and a record of taking on tabloid newspapers which are unpopular with Liberal Democrat activists. (He has sued the Mail for libel successfully and is currently one of those involved in taking legal action against the News of the World over phone hacking allegations.) With a distant third place last time, however, he would have to find a convincing answer to the question, “Why do you think you would do much better this time round?”

Leaving aside Guido’s excitement about Tim Campbell, the more interesting and far more likely high profile candidate would be Floella Benjamin. Recently appointed to the House of Lords, she has an impressive track record in educational and charity work aside from the memories of her as one of the country’s most popular children’s TV presenters. Relatively new to prominence in the party, her main challenge would be to persuade many who know of her TV work that she would also make an effective Liberal Democrat candidate. Many of those who have met her at Liberal Democrat events have come away enthused about her ability.

One question all of the actual runners will face as they emerge is, “Are you serious about trying to win?” For many activists, an enthusiastic “yes” to that question will in fact be off-putting, as the party’s chances of gaining seats on the London Assembly are much higher than those of winning the Mayor contest. But would a campaign whose headline figure isn’t upbeat about winning end up doing even worse?

Either way, the smart candidate will position themselves as an effective member of a team of candidates rather than as someone who is just about wanting to win votes in the Mayor contest.

Lembit’s own campaign describes the page as “the main point of contact for those involved in the campaign to win the nomination of the Liberal Democrat Party”.

So far, it has 9 fans on Facebook. How quickly and how far that number grows will give a good clue as to how much support there is for Lembit’s Mayoral bid.

A good first milestone may be to beat the 15 fans of Pink Dog for Mayor

With party conference in Birmingham about to start, we now have the latest figures on how the party is doing at getting a less male-dominated Parliamentary party. The Campaign for Gender Balance reports:

• Winnable seats: approximately 40% of our most winnable seats have women PPCs.
• Held seats: 4 out of the 8 seats that have MPs standing down have selected women.

The last point is particularly important as, although the party has been moving towards a good record of gender balance in newly won seats (either at general elections or by-elections), the overall balance of the Parliamentary Party has been held back by a history of heavy male dominance and a long sequence of retiring men being succeeded by male candidates.

On these figures, the 2010 election won’t revolutionise the make-up of the party but it will continue the serious progress made over the last 12 years.

But for further details on how you could become a Liberal Democrat prospective candidate see http://libdems4parliament.org.uk.

I am so pleased that my local Lib Dem candidate is genuinely the sort of person I would be proud to go out and campaign for. I wish him luck and will do whatever I can to help him.

Richard Gadsden – selected for Worsley and Eccles South

Martin Land – selected for Hungtingdon

Good luck one and all.

• Montgomeryshire – Prospective Welsh Assembly Candidate (02 Jan 2010)
• High Peak – PPC (08 Jan 2010)
• Battersea – PPC (18 Jan 2010)
• Tooting – PPC (18 Jan 2010)
• Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire – Prospective Scottish Parliamentary Candidate (22 Jan 2010)

For further details on how you could become the Liberal Democrat prospective candidate in any of these constituencies see http://libdems4parliament.org.uk/events. The site also have further information and contact details if you’re interested in finding out more about how to become a candidate more generally.