However, on 22 March, Newman announced that he was seeking the LNP preselection for the west Brisbane seat of Ashgrove, held by Labor's Kate Jones, in the election due for 2012. If he won preselection, Newman said, he would then make a bid for the LNP leadership. According to ABC News, the LNP's organisational wing wanted Newman to run for a state seat and the leadership when polls showed he was the only non-Labor politician who matched Premier Anna Bligh's popularity during the 2010–11 Queensland floods.