Analysis: Last week, in the face of a miserable poll for Labour - just 29% of the party vote - MP Angie Warren-Clark was candid. Her party simply needed to bring the "mongrel" to the fight.
It was the same day Chris Hipkins said Labour was the underdog in the election - a bit of an odd thing to collar oneself with given Labour won a majority with 50% of the party vote last election.
As the saying goes, there are two wolves inside all of us. For Hipkins it's the underdog and the mongrel - and today he chose the mongrel.
Hipkins ruled out working with New Zealand First after the election. In doing so, he delivered one of the most genuine and passionate speeches he ever has as Labour leader.
Mongrel was perhaps an unfortunate term from Warren-Clark, given National are always keen on attack lines that Labour is in bed with the gangs, but that mongrel energy has brought a little bit of spice to the campaign.
National leader Christopher Luxon has been plagued with criticism that the public doesn't feel like they know him.
It's a reason rolled out, including by Luxon himself, as to why he struggles in the preferred prime minister stakes.
But perhaps equally, the vision of Hipkins' Labour has been foggy. It was clearer under Ardern - she wore her progressive politics on her sleeve and explicitly in at times soaring oratory.
In contrast it's felt like Hipkins, the old Mr Fix It, was simply the safe pair of hands sent in to save Labour's election chances, rather than having a true prime minister stamp himself.
Some of that fell away today as he put his stake in the ground for his type of progressive politics. It's not something we've seen a lot of from Hipkins - he's a social liberal for sure, but he has often used softening words like "inclusion" and "diversity" to avoid talking about specific groups. Today he was explicit:
"And then there is Winston Peters. He is seeking to make trans people the enemy in this campaign. Living fully in your own skin isn’t always easy for any of us at the best of times, and it can be particularly hard for our rainbow communities.
"None of them deserve the kind of abuse that is being directed their way, stoked up by politicians who should know better.
"I just won’t accept that. It goes against my values, Labour’s values, and the values that define our country."
Employing the campaign slogan, he said he was a leader "in it for you, whether you’re Maōri, Pasifika, Pākehā, gay, straight, born here, migrated here, a man, a woman, trans, young, old, or different in your own way".
It's unlikely New Zealand First's stance on bathrooms and transgender people was the last straw for Hipkins. It's likely he views ruling out working with Peters more as a principled stand against what Labour perceives as fringe issues more broadly.
But strategically it's about painting National with the same brush as New Zealand First in the eyes of some voters.
That's a useful play - National sought to distance itself from the bathroom discourse, with Luxon saying the policy was "on another planet".
Labour wants to spook would-be National voters who can't stand Peters' politics, and put pressure on the Nats.
It also stops the rule in rule out question for Labour's upcoming campaign launch, and intensifies it for National's event the same weekend.
National is trying to deprive NZ First of oxygen, but it will struggle to explicitly rule out Peters. Luxon wants to win. He may need New Zealand First to do it.
It's hard to talk about getting New Zealand "back on track" when you're being hounded with questions about Winston Peters.
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