Greens make big push in Nelson to unseat Nick Smith

National MP for Nelson Nick Smith doesn't think the Greens are a threat to his 27-year career in Parliament.

The Green Party is aiming to win an electorate seat for the first time in 18 years.

The party launched its Nelson campaign today, and said candidate Matt Lawrey would run a "two-tick" election campaign against long-serving National MP Nick Smith.

The Greens usually campaign solely for the party vote, and have not targeted a seat since former co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons won in Coromandel in 1999. That remains the only electorate the Green Party has claimed in its 27-year history.

Co-leader James Shaw said he believed it was possible for Lawrey, a city councillor, to overcome Smith's 7000-vote majority. He said Smith was vulnerable because of his record in the housing and environment portfolios over the past three years.

After Labour and the Greens signed a Memorandum of Understanding last year, there was speculation that Labour could stand aside to give the Greens a clear run at the Nelson seat.

That did not eventuate. Labour has chosen unionist Rachel Boyack to stand in the seat and she will be campaigning to win.

Boyack, however, does not have the same profile as Labour's candidate in 2014, euthanasia campaigner and former Cabinet Minister Maryan Street.

The Greens also have more money than usual to spend on their Nelson campaign, thanks to a $280,000 donation from a Nelson-based supporter.

The donor, Elizabeth Riddoch, gave the money with the intention that it was spent in the Nelson and West Coast-Tasman electorates. However, the Electoral Commission sets a spending cap for political parties of around $25,000 per seat.

Shaw said his party planned to spend the maximum permitted amount in Nelson - something it rarely did in any electorate.

Smith dismissed the Greens' suggestion that it was the first time a candidate was chasing the electorate vote. Its previous candidate, Mike Ward, had "made plain" that he was after two ticks at the last election, he said.

"It's news to me that in past campaigns they were not seeking the electorate vote because that's not what the Green candidate said at the dozens of public meetings that I have attended with them over the past 20 years."

Nevertheless, he said he would be taking nothing for granted and would run a full campaign. He stood by his track record as a minister, and underlined National's popularity in Nelson. A Young Nats branch opened for the first time in the electorate earlier this year, he said.

Lawrey said his priorities for Nelson were improving the health of its waterways, making it easier for residents to get into warm, dry homes, and building a walkway and cycleway on the city's waterfront.