In 2017 second term Labour MP Stuart Nash received nearly 18,500 votes, giving him a 4200-plus majority over his National opponent David Elliott (14,159).
In 2017 second term Labour MP Stuart Nash received nearly 18,500 votes, giving him a 4200-plus majority over his National opponent David Elliott (14,159).
With 84 days to go, Hawke's Bay Today takes a look at who is standing so far, and what went down at the 2017 election.
NAPIER
CANDIDATES SO FAR
Labour's Minister of Police Stuart Nash returns to contest the seat, against local businesswoman and political candidate newcomer Katie Nimon, forNational.
James Crow (21st on the Green Party list) replaces Damon Rusden as the Napier Green Party candidate, and Act have a presence for the first time since 2011 in Judy Kendall.
Second term Labour MP Stuart Nash received nearly 20,677 votes, giving him a 5220 majority over his National opponent David Elliott (15,457).
A distant third was the Green Party's Damon Rusden, with 1386 votes.
In total 38,454 voters turned out.
Elliott was from out of town, but only just - an airline pilot who Nash described as living "in the hills of Havelock North''.
Nash's 2017 victory also helped weaken the argument that he only won in 2014 after high-profile Sensible Sentencing advocate Garth McVicar, who stood in Napier for the Conservative Party, had split the 2014 vote.
In 2014 Nash finished with 15,343 votes to beat the National Party candidate Wayne Walford (11,493). In third place was McVicar (7603).
The seat had been held by National's Chris Tremain, who retired from central government politics.
Katie Nimon has been selected as National's 2020 candidate in Napier. Photo / Supplied
In 2017, National won 46.2 per cent of the party vote, compared with 49.38 per cent in 2014.
Labour last won the Napier party vote in 2002.
The Greens picked up 1938 party votes - a drop from 3198 in 2014. NZ First had 2794 party votes.
In 2017, asked about the candidate vote running counter to the party mood of the electorate, Nash said the electorate saw him as a pragmatist who would support what was good for Napier, even if it was a National initiative.
TUKITUKI
CANDIDATES SO FAR
Incumbent National Party MP Lawrence Yule and Labour's Anna Lorck square off again. Green Party's Chris Perley is also returning to seemingly push the party vote, after departing from the Greens' list.
LAST TIME
The big question for first-time National Party candidate Lawrence Yule in 2017 had been whether his 15 years as Hastings mayor had been a help or hindrance.
Name recognition? Sure.
But the hindrance question arose out of the 2016 Havelock North campylobacter outbreak, in the latter part of Yule's mayoral term.
Yule is on record as saying that if the Hastings District Council had been found to be the cause of the gastro outbreak, he would have resigned immediately.
The council wasn't found accountable - and the overall lack of accountability remains something that sticks in the craw of many.
As it was, Yule did resign, but to pursue a central government career.
Voters pulled him into the electorate with 18,280 - a 2813 majority over Labour's Anna Lorck (15,467). Tukituki had a very similar voting turnout to Napier - 38,547.
In 2014, National Party MP Craig Foss had enjoyed a 6490 majority.
On election night 2017, a gracious Yule commended Lorck on a hard-run campaign.
Lorck made a point of noting that 2017 would go some way to setting up a confident tilt at the seat in 2020.
PARTY TIME
Tukituki is a blue seat when it comes to the party vote, with the 2017 result seeing National take 49.19 per cent compared to Labour's 34.14 per cent.
IKAROA RAHWITI
CANDIDATES SO FAR
The Ikaroa-Rāwhiti electorate begins at the top of the East Cape and runs down the east coast to Wellington, taking in Gisborne, Hawke's Bay and the Wairarapa, as well as most of the Hutt Valley and Wainuiomata.
Labour's Meka Whaitiri stands again, against Maori Party candidate Heather Te Au Skipworth, who replaces controversial candidate Marama Fox.
The Green Party's Elizabeth Kerekere and Outdoors Party's Kelly Thurston also contest the seat. It has a massive geographical spread, but only 22,865 people voted in 2017.
Meka Whaitiri, Labour Party, beat Marama Fox (Maori Party) for the Ikaroa-Rawhiti seat.
The seat was formed in 1999 and held by Labour Party MP Parekura Horomia until his death in 2013.
Labour's Meka Whaitiri won a byelection to replace him in June 2013.
LAST TIME
Former Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox won nearly all booths in her hometown of Masterton, but Whaitiri made a clean sweep of many in the Hawke's Bay area.
Whaitiri (12,274) took 55 per cent of the candidate vote, compared with Fox's share of less than 36 per cent, with 8064 votes. Green Party candidate Elizabeth Kerekere had 1924 votes.
The win was particularly satisfying for Whaitiri because she had taken herself off the Labour Party list, as Anna Lorck in Tukituki has in 2020, to focus on winning a place as an electorate MP.
Whaitiri had predicted a close race as she and the other candidates travelled thousands of kilometres in the widespread electorate.
2017 Ikaroa-Rawhiti Maori Party candidate Marama Fox.
Post election, Fox made two memorable public appearances. One was in May 2018 on TV show Dancing with the Stars, and the other was in court in February 2019 for drink-driving.
In September 2019, it was reported she had run into financial difficulties with a company she owned, and moved to Australia.
PARTY TIME
Labour's 2017 took 65 per cent (well up on 2014's 47 per cent) of the party vote in Ikaroa-Rawhiti compared with the Maori Party's 12 per cent.
WAIRARAPA
CANDIDATES SO FAR
Wairarapa (includes Central Hawke's Bay, Dannevirke):
Mike Butterick is in for the National Party, replacing outgoing MP Alastair Scott, who is based in Wellington and has been criticised for his lack of presence in the electorate.
Labour Party list MP Kieran McAnulty is back, as is New Zealand First's Ron Mark (list MP). The Green Party have Celia Wade-Brown coming in for John Hart, and Act's Roger Greenslade also returns.
LAST TIME
National's Alastair Scott (16,514) took 41.4 per cent of the vote over Labour's Kieran McAnulty (13,642) - a majority of 2872.
NZ First's Ron Mark grabbed 7753 votes and the Minister of Defence post under the coalition government that eventually formed. There were 40,232 votes cast - the biggest turnout in the region.
Wairarapa list MP and Defence Minister Ron Mark, pictured with PM Jacinda Ardern.
PARTY TIME
Labour took a big jump from around 20 per cent to 32.08 but the seat remains true blue with 48.8 per cent of the party vote going to National.
