Michael Keenan (South Australian politician)

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Michael Keenan is a South Australian politician and was the Mayor of the City of Unley for 15 years before been beaten by Richard Thorne, a retired businesman, on the 11th of November 2006. Keenan has run as a Australian Labor Party member and an independent for various state and federal seats at various elections. Keenan came within 1.1% of winning the seat of Unley in the 2006 state election; he has been unsuccessful in all four of his attempts at gaining state or federal office. He is a member of the Australian Services Union.

He was the Labor candidate for Boothby in the federal election of 1984. He ran as an Independent in the 1997 state election, and on a Clubs SA Legislative Council ticket in the 2002 state election. The purpose of the ticket was a protest against what he considered to be the partisan issuing of pokie licences by the incumbent Liberal Government. Keenan was chosen to contest Unley at the 2006 election without having to go through the preselection processes due to the use of the "Premier's choice" rule, which Labor Premier Mike Rann had earlier used on the candidacy of Jane Lomax-Smith in Adelaide and Vini Ciccarello in Norwood.