Contenders for mayor shrug off Williams

North Shore City Mayor Andrew Williams. Photo / The Aucklander

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Neither of the two main contenders for the Auckland Super City leadership is admitting concern about the sudden entry of North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams to the race.

Auckland City Mayor John Banks said that although Mr Williams "will give us a run for our money and we look forward to that", he was overwhelmed with support for his own candidacy while campaigning in North Shore City yesterday afternoon.

"I'm overwhelmed with the support on the doorsteps and the bus stops and in the shopping centres - it's been quite humbling," Mr Banks said.

Asked if his choice of campaign turf yesterday was influenced by his new rival's decision to run for the Super City mayoralty, he said: "Every day I'm somewhere - this morning I was in Papakura and this afternoon I was on the Shore." But he added: "I think North Shore is going to be quite critical to any candidate's fortune - it's a very big voting block of people."

Manukau Mayor Len Brown, still a nose ahead of Mr Banks in a poll last month of 1537 readers of the Herald and other APN publications despite intense scrutiny of his credit card expenses, also campaigned in North Shore yesterday.

He was unavailable for comment last night, but his supporters are brushing off any suggestion Mr Williams will split an anti-Government vote, indicating their man has wide enough support from across the region to win the race regardless of how the North Shore ballots fall.

Although Mr Williams defied polls to seize the North Shore mayoralty in 2007, and has been outspoken in opposition to the Super City reforms, it is understood the Brown camp does not believe he will gather enough cross-regional support in the three months left until ballot day.

That view is shared by Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey, the only leader of the four existing Auckland cities not to put his hat into the contest.

"The race is still very clear between John Banks and Len Brown. Everything else is simply a sideshow. I don't think right now that he's causing anybody to lose any sleep," he said of Mr Williams. "He should join a men's drumming group in a sweat lodge - it would do him a world of good."

He denied his assessment was influenced by his clash with Mr Williams over the North Shore mayor's opposition to his proposal to open the Whenuapai Air Force Base to civilian air traffic. Although the defeat of that dream is what is believed to have won Mr Williams the mayoralty, Mr Harvey said: "It was a long time ago - I've got absolutely good relationships with them all."

Asked whether he ever felt an urge to run for the Super City, he said: "Well, of course, but then the sanity gene kicks in and says this is not a job for the faint-hearted. Firstly the money's lousy, and you are not empowered. The task is huge in the first term and it isn't an empowered job. That is my real concern, that the mayor could finish up with the most dysfunctional council in the history of local government politics."

Mr Harvey said nobody he had talked to who intended running for a council seat had indicated support for the Super City. "If you don't have a council that buys into the potential of Auckland and what the Super City's potential is then whoever the mayor is, the job will be hugely difficult."