Editorial: Who wants to be the next Mayor of Hastings?

Andrew Austin, Editor of Hawke's Bay Today.

The general elections are barely over and now Hastings residents find themselves having to elect a new mayor and a councillor.

This has been necessitated by former mayor Lawrence Yule's decision to (successfully) run for Tukituki MP and former councillor Adrienne Pierce to (unsuccessfully) seek election as Palmerston North MP.

Current acting mayor Sandra Hazlehurst, acting deputy Simon Nixon, councillor Bayden Barber and local man Stuart Perry have all announced they want to be mayor.

However, don't be surprised if another high-profile candidate emerges before nominations close tomorrow. There has been speculation that Anna Lorck, who Mr Yule defeated in Saturday's general election, will throw her hat in the ring, but she recently ruled that out. However the structures for some of her billboards from the recent election are still up, so this could mean her husband Damon Harvey is considering running for mayor.

Traditionally byelections are pretty low-turnout events with usually only about 12,000 people voting. In a big field like this one, that means about 3000 votes are probably all it will take to win the mayoralty. Ms Hazlehurst is probably in prime position because she is a popular councillor and is acting mayor already.

Mr Barber has a well-organised campaign and will mobilise to get Maori voters out. Mr Perry was unsuccessful in his bid for a council seat last time, so probably is the outsider, while Mr Nixon is a perennial stander who is unlikely to get enough votes.

Mr Harvey, a new councillor, is a contender as he has many well-connected friends and powerful business acquaintances in the city. He also sits on a number of boards, so will get support from a variety of groups. Whether he gets any backlash from his wife's failed MP bid remains to be seen.

Another interesting battle lies ahead.