Lib Dem PPC Ed Fordham makes Observer’s 2010 Hot List

Lib Dem candidate for Hampstead and Kilburn, Ed Fordham, is cited by today’s Observer as one of the rising stars of British politics:

“It will be a barometer seat without a doubt,” says Liberal Democrat Ed Fordham of his battle against veteran Labour MP Glenda Jackson in Hampstead and Kilburn. The 38-year-old, a former Lib Dem campaigns officer who is expected to play a major part in shaping the party’s future agenda, needs an estimated gain of 474 votes to be elected, in one of the closest-fought battles of the coming election. Fordham, has already won some influential supporters. Former American governor Howard Dean, a key figure in Barack Obama’s 2008 success, compared Fordham’s work on local communities to that of the American president, leading his local paper to dub him the Barack Obama of Hampstead.

Not a bad end to 2009, eh, Ed? Now that’s what The Voice calls the audacity of hope.