By JULIE MIDDLETON
You hear the "Chris Fletcher for Mayor" campaign before you see it. Scratching its way out of loudspeakers mounted on the roof of a Mini is the Swingers' Kiwi pop classic Counting the Beat.
"I'm counting the beat, six-seven-eight-nine; I'm wishing that you, that you were mine."
Does she what! Christine Fletcher wants to reclaim the job she lost to John Banks three years ago. So she's glad-handing shopkeepers and passersby in Panmure, hoping to build support that was, according to a Herald-DigiPoll survey last week, languishing at 9.6 per cent - behind Banks (27.3 per cent) and greenhorn candidate Dick Hubbard (32.2).
Panmure, not a natural stamping ground for a St Cuthbert's old girl, is full of $2 shops and an astonishing number of takeaways bars. Fletcher bounds into them, full of earnest sincerity.
"Hi, I'm Christine Fletcher and I'm running for the mayoralty for Auckland. May I leave you one of my brochures?"
Those who look like they might engage are asked what the local issues are (security and infrastructure), and what they think of the eastern highway (not much, if it literally drives customers away).
Today Fletcher's hitting an unfortunately high number of Manukau residents, so she asks whether Sir Barry Curtis will retake the mayoralty. People, oddly enough, usually laugh at this suggestion. But it's not usually clear if it's mirthless or not.
Shopkeepers, Fletcher says, are in contact with lots of people, so they are well worth targeting.
Fletcher, whose policies in a soundbite are no slums, no spin and no eastern motorway, is good at the small talk. A young guy laying paving stones who calls out "Hello Mrs Fletcher" finds himself being asked which footpath surfaces are best.
She patiently tackles poor English, prejudice (one man doesn't want gay parades funded), ranters, those who confuse central and local government functions, and God-squadders dispensing blessings.
Most people in her wake look bemused - it's not often that faces on billboards pay you a visit. Very few give her the brush-off.
But Fletcher is downright grumpy about the Herald poll: she says her own polling tells a different story. The paper, she says, has "bought into flavour of the moment" (Hubbard). "I'm interested in the flavour of the long-term."
Suggest that some think she should withdraw to allow a two-horse race and her arms cross tightly, her voice rises sharply.
"Well that's just bollocks. That would desert all those people who, like me, believe that a highway or motorway for this area is fundamentally wrong ... It would desert those people who have very strong views about growth.
"No, I'm not thinking about standing down. I wouldn't be doing this unless I believed I could win it."
The lady is not for turning by personality politics or polls: "That's what has had Auckland lurching from this mayor to that mayor. We keep lurching around like junkies looking for the quick fix."
Herald Feature: Local Vote 2004
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