Candidate clings to hope

By PHILIP ENGLISH

Until about 18 months ago Len Brown believed the 2004 local body elections would deliver him the mayoralty of Manukau.

In 2001 the incumbent mayor, Sir Barry Curtis, indicated he would retire in 2004 and Mr Brown thought the job was his for the taking. As a high-profile lawyer with a base in the poorer wards of Manukau and years of experience on the Manukau City Council, he was ready for the job.

But Sir Barry changed his mind and decided to have an eighth go. Mr Brown knew he was buying a fight, but the councillor of 11 years believed he had served his apprenticeship representing Otara and was ready for a new leadership challenge.

On Saturday, in spite of some television advertising, an energetic campaign and running a full website, Mr Brown finished 566 votes behind Sir Barry, who collected 20,811 votes. Sir Barry won but took just 26 per cent of the votes cast for the seven mayoral hopefuls.

Mr Brown does not concede defeat. He still wants the mayoralty so will not give up until he is sure of the vote count.

The 48-year-old mayoral candidate and four-term council member should know by late today or early tomorrow whether his challenge will remain live.

Special votes should be counted by today. Some questions Mr Brown's team had on election day - about counting and postal processes - also ought to be cleared up so a decision can be made.

Mr Brown said the team got mixed messages on Saturday. At one stage there was an indication of two or three thousand votes to be counted. Then it was 4500.

Once all the information had been gathered a decision would be made on a recount. but a recount would be sought only on the basis of fairness, not of a close result.

Mr Brown believed his community networks, time on the council and door-knocking on 23,000 homes across the city helped him get close to Sir Barry's vote count.

"You cannot beat the personal approach in politics."

Mr Brown knew he was not an outsider for the post. He had grown up and spent his working life in Manukau and voters were telling him it was time for change.

"The only problem was of course that 75 per cent of people voted against Barry and 25 per cent voted for him. And so there he is ... That's democracy. That's the way it stands at the moment."

Mr Brown said Manukau voters went for candidates who did the hard yards and whom they knew and trusted.

"That is the reason why Sir Barry has been able to stay for so long because they know him and trust him."

Mr Brown said having 20,000 votes from fellow citizens against his name was humbling.

"My only real disappointment in the campaign - aside from the fact that I am not 500 ahead but am 500 behind - is that we still got a low voter turnout."

Mr Brown agreed his was a "make or break" campaign and that people responded positively to his decision to stand only for the mayoralty. He had been looking forward to working to establish a region-wide public transport system that people would use.

Mr Brown said that if he did lose he would give his family more attention and return to his career as a lawyer.

He added that he would not stand in the general election next year in spite of his Labour Party contacts.