Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Labour's Nash in the lead: poll

By Simon Hendery and Harrison Christian
Hawkes Bay Today·
14 Sep, 2014 10:00 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Labour's Napier candidate, Stuart Nash. Photo / Glenn Taylor

Labour's Napier candidate, Stuart Nash. Photo / Glenn Taylor

Labour's Napier candidate, Stuart Nash, is on track to return to Parliament, according to a poll that gives him a 6 per cent lead in the electorate over National's Wayne Walford.

According to the ONE News Colmar Brunton poll of 501 voters in the electorate, Mr Nash has 39 per cent support, ahead of Mr Walford on 33 per cent. Conservative Party candidate Garth McVicar was preferred by 22 per cent of those polled, while Green candidate Paul Bailey was chosen by the remaining 6 per cent.

The other two candidates seeking election in the Napier seat - Alliance candidate Mary O'Neill and Barry Pulford of the Democrats for Social Credit - failed to register any support in the poll.

Mr Nash's top ranking in the poll contrasts with how voters said they would use their party vote on election day.

Forty-four per cent said they would party vote National, 25 per cent supported Labour, 12 per cent the Greens and 9 per cent the Conservatives.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The Conservative Party vote is much higher in Napier than in nationwide polls, reflecting Mr McVicar's strong personal following in the electorate.

Massey University political marketing specialist Professor Claire Robinson said the poll showed Mr McVicar was stealing votes from Mr Walford and Mr Nash.

"He's clearly been stealing votes, probably off both National and Labour. It's situations like these that don't make it easy for any political party, if the vote is split three ways.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"Garth McVicar will be taking votes off Stuart Nash and Wayne Walford and it seems to be working in Stuart Nash's favour. McVicar needs to be focused on the Conservative Party vote rather than his electorate vote.

"Given that poll result, votes for Garth McVicar are wasted votes. He needs to be telling people to vote Conservative for their party vote and give National their electorate vote."

The poll was taken between Tuesday and Thursday last week and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 per cent.

Six per cent of respondents were undecided or did not say which electorate candidate they supported while 10 per cent were undecided or did not say how they would use their party vote.

Mr Nash said last night he was taking nothing for granted and he had told his campaign team they needed "to make the most of every single hour of every single day" until Saturday's election.

"It's going to be a full-on, long week of going very hard," he said.

"We're not resting on our laurels by any stretch of the imagination. We're going to be working incredibly hard right up to election day."

Mr Walford said he remained confident.

"We're just going to continue shaking hands and knocking on doors, and getting the message out there," he said.

"Until they count the final votes we won't know."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Mr McVicar, who was the last of the three main candidates to enter the race, said he was happy with the poll.

"I always knew we were up against a couple of well-known brands in Hawke's Bay, but we're on the upward plane and from what I'm picking up the others are slipping."

He said the party had a good strategy planned for the last week of the campaign so was expecting support to increase by election day.

Mr McVicar's party leader, Colin Craig, was upbeat about the Conservatives' prospects in Napier when he spoke at a party meeting in the city yesterday.

"Garth has got nearly a quarter of the vote in Napier under his belt.

"He started five weeks ago," Mr Craig said. "Every day Walford and Nash lose support to this man.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"They're desperately hoping their support doesn't leak away so quick that Garth gets over the line on Saturday."

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay

Hawkes Bay Today

'We have you surrounded': Police stood down after Hawke's Bay stand-off, search continues

Premium
Hawkes Bay Today

Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay
Hawkes Bay Today

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay

Some roads remained blocked.

17 Jul 06:02 AM
'We have you surrounded': Police stood down after Hawke's Bay stand-off, search continues
Hawkes Bay Today

'We have you surrounded': Police stood down after Hawke's Bay stand-off, search continues

17 Jul 04:06 AM
Premium
Premium
Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa
Hawkes Bay Today

Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa

17 Jul 04:00 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP