Mayor Len Brown. Photo / Greg Bowker
Manukau Mayor Len Brown has a big lead on Auckland City Mayor John Banks in a Herald-DigiPoll survey on the Super City mayoralty.
The head-to-head match-up between the two declared heavyweight candidates has Mr Brown on 48.4 per cent, 11.4 percentage points ahead of Mr Banks on 37 per cent.
The survey of 731 respondents across Auckland is the first independent poll on the Super City.
Mr Brown, who has been working to raise his profile outside Manukau since launching a bid on August 30 last year to become the Super City's first mayor, said the poll's results confirmed the positive response he was receiving.
"We are up against a guy with a lot of experience and formidable local government and central government experience. We are a long way from home," Mr Brown said.
Mr Banks, who has long made no secret of his desire to be the first mayor of the whole Auckland region, said he was a little surprised but said there was a long way to go until the election on October 9.
He predicted a tight race, saying his own poll last month had him neck-and-neck with Mr Brown.
"We are pretty happy with where we are at and the campaign itself," said Mr Banks, who entered local politics in 1977 and became a National MP in 1981.
"But I don't take anything away from Len Brown. I respect the candidate and every vote has to be earned."
Mr Banks received the poll results shortly before launching a new website - johnbanks.co.nz - at the Sale St bar and restaurant in Freemans Bay last night.
In an earlier poll question, in which respondents were not prompted with any mayoral candidates' names, Mr Brown still topped the list with 22.3 per cent support, followed by Mr Banks on 17 per cent and Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey with 4.9 per cent.
Political figures Mike Lee, Andrew Williams and Dame Jenny Shipley, businessman Sir Stephen Tindall and broadcaster Paul Holmes polled less than 2 per cent each.
The poll also shows Aucklanders generally don't like the Super City.
When asked if they thought that the amalgamated Super City would be a better place to live, 48.5 per cent said no and 32.8 per cent said yes.
And 52.7 per cent of respondents said a single Auckland Council would be worse for them; 31.2 per cent said it would be better.
Asked whether replacing the existing eight councils with a single council would improve management of the region, respondents were more evenly split, 42.1 per cent saying yes and 49.5 per cent no.
The poll was conducted between April 30 and Wednesday and had a margin of error of 3.6 per cent.
Click here for the 'Idiot's guide to the Super City' to see how the new Auckland Council will work.
