 Labor's Craig Langdon held the seat comfortably until he resigned from the parliament on 25 August 2010, citing family and personal reasons, as well as "disloyalty and betrayal" from several of his colleagues.Langdon had failed to gain pre-selection for the 2010 state election, and there was speculation that his early resignation would trigger a by-election in Ivanhoe.In fact, on 13 September a by-election writ was issued, but the next day House Speaker Jenny Lindell announced that she would discharge the writ citing significant expense to hold a by-election three weeks before the full state election.