A poll of Maori voters echoes June's Te Tai Tokerau byelection result and suggests Mana Party leader Hone Harawira's own mana is on the wane.
Mr Harawira said the result showing the race too close to call between himself and Labour List MP Kelvin Davis was a wake-up call. He said he needed to put in the hard yards in his electorate to rebuild his former strong support.
Mr Harawira's party polled at 28.6 per cent and Labour at 30.2 per cent in a recent TVNZ-commissioned DigiPoll; however, the difference is less than the margin of error.
Commentators say the 97 Maori voters surveyed in Te Tai Tokerau (and 1002 nationwide) was too small a number to be meaningful. The poll also only surveyed the party vote, not politicians.
One of the surprises across its national gamut related to another Northland politician - almost half the 1002 voters polled wanted Shane Jones to take over the Labour Party leadership from Phil Goff.
Mr Jones laughed at the party leader result and sighed at the electorate, one which showed Labour behind the Maori Party (co-leader Dr Pita Sharples) in the quest for the Tamaki Makaurau seat.
"Poll results come and go but the reality is I was always going to be taking on a large task in trying to take Pita out of Tamaki Makaurau," he said.
"At one level we can criticise the quality of a poll but there might also be some messages to take on board. Hone's quite right, he's got work to do in Te Tai Tokerau but we all know he's a formidable campaigner."
Mr Jones said he wasn't surprised the poll indicated almost 70 per cent accepted the Maori Party would compromise its position to join a National government.
"Maori voters worked out very quickly and early on that if you split the vote you can get more Maori in Government," he said.
Mr Davis, who in June shaved over 5000 votes off the huge 6308 majority Mr Harawira had in 2008, said the poll was insignificant.
"Obviously it's better to be ahead in any poll but with this one we must take it with a grain of salt. There were less than 100 people taking part (in Northland)."
However, it did reinforce that Te Tokerau would be a "an old-style, first past the post, two-horse race", Mr Davis said.
With Labour support sinking and some list MPs likely to fall off in the election, Mr Davis needs to win the party vote in his electorate, "or I'll be out of Parliament".