Fight for Napier seat in Parliament starting to heat up

Campaigns to ramp up for Napier candidates including Labour's Stuart Nash (second from left), Greens candidate Damon Rusden (second from right), and National's David Elliott (standing). Photo / File

Those vying to be Napier's next MP are not taking anything for granted, with just over a month to go until the general election.

The campaigns of all five candidates are set to ramp up in this time. For incumbent MP Stuart Nash, the dissolution of parliament this Tuesday means an increase in his campaign to hold the seat he won in 2014.

Having been Napier's representative for three years, he had more recognition this election, but noted "I'm still fighting for my political life".

"I can pitch my message slightly differently and say I have worked hard as the local MP which I couldn't say last time but again, we've just got to get out there and go hell for leather and hope the voters believe we have done a good job."

Compared to 2014, Mr Nash said he thought this election would "probably be slightly harder".

"I wasn't an MP then and so I had more time on the ground ... it was a vacant seat and so Napier was electing a new MP."

And, "[2014 Conservative Candidate] Garth McVicar's not running and he was a bit of a spoiler."

It was thought Mr McVicar had split the right vote, with his 7603 votes stolen mostly from National candidate Wayne Walford - who lost to Mr Nash by nearly 4000 votes.

Although Labour analysis showed Mr Nash would still have won without Mr McVicar in the race - with a majority of about 1200 - he said the Napier seat "isn't as safe as it might appear on paper".

That means that you don't take anything for granted, you still work hard. There's no room for comfort, and no room for complacency."

His opponent, National candidate David Elliott said, while it would be interesting to see which way people voted without a figure like Mr McVicar in this years race, "there's no guarantee".

"I think it just comes down to values. If they look at me as a candidate and think I present the values they were voting for when they were voting for Garth ... then I'd get their vote.

"But I'm not taking anything for granted along those lines, I'm a different candidate than the last candidate, and a different candidate than my opponent."

In the 2014 election, nearly double the amount of Napier voters gave their party support to National, receiving 18,005 votes to Labour's 9466.

With this in mind Mr Elliott said when it came to the candidate vote, he thought voters would align themselves with the person they felt best represented their values - and that his values aligned with what people wanted when voting for the National Party.

"Logically if they voted for the National Party then it makes sense to have a voice in the government they're voting for," Mr Elliott said. "That's what I'm hoping that they tick one box and then they decide they'd like a voice as well."

Later this month Mr Elliott will take leave of his job as a pilot to campaign full time.

"I'm trying to let the electorate know as much as they can [about me]. It's a harder task for me I suppose, because I haven't had the nine years of being out there for people to get to know me."

The campaign is also well under way for Green Party candidate Damon Rusden.

"I'm going for the party vote, if people want to vote for me they can vote for me, but that's not what I'm here for," he said.

Given the Memorandum of Understanding between his party and Labour, Mr Rusden said people had more option to vote with their values, rather than strategically.

Maori party candidate Maryanne Marsters said her campaign was "in full swing", and was gearing up for more candidates meetings.

"For me I think it's really important that I talk to the people on the streets, so that's what I've been trying to do as I meet people, just have a chat."

Democrats for Social Credit candidate Karl Matthys said as a minor party, their campaigning would be more "low key" - with no door knocking, or hoardings, but plenty of meetings.

"We believe we have something to offer. A lot of people that wanted to support Labour have been disillusioned."

There is no Conservative party candidate standing in this election. Nominations for other candidates close on August 29.

Napier has long been a Labour seat - before Chris Tremain was elected in 2005, the electorate had not been won by a National party candidate since Peter Tait in the 1951 election.