JUST when you thought the federal election couldn't get any more weird, a candidate for the ultra-conservative Family First party has tried to defect to the Australian Sex Party.

David Barrow (pictured) was running for the marginal seat of La Trobe for Family First when he was dramatically disendorsed for revealing on Monday he supported both same-sex marriage and women's right to abortion.

Barrow contacted the Australian Sex Party head Fiona Patten that very night and asked her for advice on him joining the extreme libertarian party, which advocates legalising X-rated videos and decriminalising all drugs for personal use.

The Sex Party already has comedian Austen Tayshus running against Tony Abbott in his seat of Warringah.

Lawyer turned pole dancer Marianne Leishman, aka Zahra Stardust, is the party's NSW Senate candidate.

AND while Abbott refuses to debate Julia Gillard on the economy, way out west it seems, they do things a little differently.

Perhaps emboldened by his debut in Locked and Loaded last week, feisty 20-year-old Christian Emmery, who is trying to knock Sussan Ley out of the NSW seat of Farrer, thought he would take a leaf from his leader's book and challenge his older and more experienced opponent. But things took a surprising turn when Ms Ley said yes. Next thing you know the ABC had sent this to both candidates: "We would like to moderate a debate on the economy between Sussan and Christian in our ABC Goulburn Murray Studio next Tuesday 17 or Wednesday, August 18.

"Debate would take place during our Mornings Program and would go to air following the 9 o'clock news. We are looking to link up with ABC Broken Hill and ABC Mildura with Joseph Thomsen and two other presenters acting as moderators."

The success of the move in raising young Christian's profile has so impressed ALP strategists that they may not use Sydney star Rhys Muldoon to launch his campaign after all.

AN ABC story this week ran criticism of the Libs buying Google ads for the search term "Jess Moore", a good-looking socialist running for the Wollongong seat of Cunningham.

Running under the headline "Liberal Party under fire for Google ads", the online piece quoted Jess as saying the Liberals were "brazenly doing something incredibly undemocratic".

We were surprised when a search for "Jess Moore" came up with: "Australia Votes 2010: ABC guide to the candidates & their electorates. www.ABC.net.au/elections"

Source: The Daily Telegraph