Brian and Vanessa Neeson are hoping to make political history by becoming the first husband and wife to enter Parliament together.
Mrs Neeson has been selected ahead of accountant Tracey Adams as the National candidate for Te Atatu.
Her husband is the National MP for Waipareira and is seeking afourth term in the new seat of Waitakere.
Politicians have met in Parliament and then married - National's Michael Cox and Katherine O'Regan and Labour's Michael Cullen and Anne Collins are recent examples - but a married couple have never pulled off a double win at the polls.
"We have a deep interest in people and politics," said Mr Neeson. "We have done everything together, too; we have worked together when I was in business ... We simply are in each other's lives 100 per cent."
But while he conceded that being in Parliament would provide the wonderful "perk" of being together more, he said the main reason for Mrs Neeson becoming an MP was to represent Te Atatu "110 per cent."
Mrs Neeson said the opportunity to stand in Te Atatu came after she failed (for the third time) to win the Waitakere mayoralty last October and stood down as a Waitakere City councillor after nine years.
She did not think that seeking election would be detrimental to her husband or the National Party, which gave Mrs Neeson its blessing only after canvassing the possible downside of double-dipping and any damage to the party that might result.
Mrs Neeson's selection has also reopened a long-running feud with the Labour candidate in Te Atatu, Chris Carter.
Mr Neeson unseated him at the 1996 elections by 107 votes.
Mr Carter confidently predicted he would win Te Atatu and suggested Mrs Neeson was only bothering to stand because she was a "political junkie on cold turkey since she lost the mayoralty."
The man who beat Mrs Neeson for the Waitakere mayoralty, Labour Party president Bob Harvey, said there had not been a more fun couple than the Neesons in politics since Napoleon and Josephine.
"Vanessa Neeson is one of the great minds of the fifteenth century."
