Phil Goff's Auckland mayoral campaign raised more than $700,000. Photo / Greg Bowker
Phil Goff's Auckland mayoral campaign raised more than $700,000. Photo / Greg Bowker
Former Prime Minister Helen Clark and rich lister Eric Watson were among the donors to Phil Goff's successful Auckland mayoral campaign, which raised more than $700,000.
Clark and Watson each donated $5000 to Goff, who spent $410,814 on his campaign, leaving him with a "good little war chest" for another run in 2019, according to his campaign manager David Lewis.
Goff said his team worked hard at fundraising, putting the big bounty down to a lot of confidence in him and an expectation he was likely to win the election.
Electoral returns for October's local body elections show Goff vastly outspent the third place-getter Chloe Swarbrick, whose social media-focused campaign cost $8369. She received just one donation above the $1500 declaration threshold: $2154 from Phantom Billstickers to produce and place posters.
The main centre-right candidate, businesswoman Vic Crone, said she filed her return by email late on Friday afternoon. Auckland electoral officer Dale Ofsoske had not received it by the close of business. The deadline to file returns was midnight on Friday.
Ofsoske said about 100 of the 800 or so candidates in the October elections had not filed returns. He planned to give them a period of grace until Wednesday before handing the matter to the police. Unsuccessful candidates who fail to file a return can be fined up to $1000. Successful candidates can be fined up to $1000 and up to $400 for every day in office until the return is filed.
The electoral returns cover the three months up to polling day. The spending limit for mayoral candidates was $621,504.
Goff's returns shows he raised $238,056 in donations, office space, audio visual and artwork services valued above $1500 and $366,115 in proceeds from fundraising auctions. Donations of less than $1500 took total fundraising to more than $700,000, Lewis said.
Goff's largest cash donation of $50,000 was made by Fu Wah, the Chinese development company building the $200 million Park Hyatt Hotel in Auckland's Wynyard Quarter.
Businessman Eric Watson donated $5000 to Phil Goff's mayoral campaign. Photo / Richard Robinson
Phillip Mills, head of the Les Mills gym empire, donated $10,000; Bayleys chipped in $5000; and Cliff Cook, a retirement village businessman, donated $25,000.
Of the $366,115 auction proceeds, nearly half was $150,000 paid for a book written and signed by Chinese President Xi Jingping and purchased by a Chinese businessman Weiguo Hong through a company, Hong Taichi, listed at a Remuera address.
There is nothing in there that suggests we have done anything other than stick to the rules
Lewis said there were strong public interest reasons for voluntarily declaring the company which purchased the book. He did not disclose the buyers of a $5 note signed by Sir Edmund Hillary which sold for $30,000 and two bottles of wine signed by John Key and Andrew Little which sold for $25,000 at the same auction in September.
Lewis said candidates declare donations of more than $1500. The test for items sold at auctions is whether you sell things a "reasonable market value".
"If you hold a clearly competitive auction, as we did, the sale price is a fair market value, and the monies received is for the sale of goods. It is not a donation. There is nothing in there that suggests we have done anything other than stick to the rules," Lewis said.
Goff's return show his biggest expense was $108,220 spent on television, $47,437 on radio and $7638 on print. Other spending went on project management($34,868), wages and contractors($18,130) and catering for fundraising events($22,564).
