OPINION: Early Tauranga mayoral showdown had one clear winner

Audience members at the Meet the Mayoral Candidates event. Photo / George Novak

COMMENT:

Tauranga's mayoral race got off to an earnest yet slightly premature start this week with a Meet the Candidates event at Tauranga Girls' College. Civic issues reporter Samantha Motion was there and reviewed each of the seven candidates' performance.

It wasn't a debate but there was a winner when the seven people - so far- to launch a bid for Tauranga's mayoralty faced off on Tuesday night.

The event felt a bit premature, with a month still to go before candidate nominations officially open.

At this rate the voters will be sick of campaign politics before that democratic visual pollution – election hoardings – even go up.

There was, however, a reasonably good turnout, though heavily skewed towards the older generation. You can't fault Baby Boomers for their enthusiasm for weeknight civic engagement.

Mayor Greg Brownless looked like he knew he was in for a beating.

His speeches were flat and multiple photos of him looking like he was having a bit of shut-eye between turns at the podium don't help.

Danny Cancian, Tenby Powell and Greg Brownless at the event. Photo / George Novak

For someone with a generally cheery disposition, it was hard to discern any joy or enthusiasm for the job in his "back to basics" introduction.

A question about his regrets stumped him for several long seconds.

I don't think he can count on his name recognition and philanthropic reputation to get him over the line for re-election, he's going to need to buck up a bit.

His deputy Kelvin Clout, on the other hand, was full of energy – he even said so himself.

Clout was also, unfortunately, his own worst enemy in front of that crowd, jumping far too enthusiastically on almost every grenade issue lobbed in his general vicinity, particularly his defence of Te Papa O Ngā Manu Porotakataka.

In another risible moment, he admitted avoiding meeting a disgruntled homeowner with years of grievances on legal advice, then changing his mind and meeting the guy the day before the meeting.

Deputy Mayor Kelvin Clout. Photo / George Novak

It was more ammunition for the "arrogant council" narrative some candidates were only too glad to exploit.

Clout did have one of the more original ideas of the night, calling for the electorate to be split into smaller wards with a single councillor responsible for each to increase accountability. Worth exploring.

Former councillor Murray Guy made a decent play for voters to return him to that role. While prone to all-caps rants on Facebook, he was entertaining on the mic and knows the issues well.

It was hard to take Danny Cancian, Les Wallen or Rangimarie Te Amopiu-Kaa Kingi seriously as potential leaders of New Zealand's fifth biggest city.

Both Cancian and Wallen were one-issue ponies. Cancian targeted council bullying and Wallen slammed roading changes in Greerton.

Wallen had the audience engaged at first but gradually lost them as he kept returning to the same transport issues over and over.

I reckon Cancian is relying too much on the support he receives in his corner of Facebook, because I can't see that translating into votes from the general population.

Kingi, aka Lady Justice, seemed a bit all over the place to me.

Mayoral candidates Murray Guy and Rangimarie Te Amopiu-Kaa Kingi during Tuesdays event. Photo / George Novak

Lastly, Tenby Powell, my pick for the winner of this not-a-debate.

He was easily the most polished presenter and for someone who apparently scootered on back to his childhood home a mere month ago, he was well informed on a variety of issues and has clearly touched base with a lot of local pundits already.

He didn't entirely lean on council-bashing to make his points and didn't pander to the audience with too much populism - even attempting to throw in a good word for Phil Twyford.

Some of his name dropping was a bit cringeworthy but he has a tough task ahead to build his local name recognition so, why not?

Powell was spoiling for a fight – preemptively dealing with criticisms of being a recently former Aucklander and too busy to be mayor – but didn't really manage to get any of the other candidates to bite.

But there's still time, the campaign is only just beginning.