Auckland City Mayor John Banks and North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams nearly came to blows at a fiery Super City candidates meeting in a Castor Bay church hall on the North Shore.
"For a moment there I thought there would be mayoral fisticuffs," said mayoral contender Simon Prast, who said he saw Mr Williams leap from his pew and come within millimetres of Mr Banks.
"It was petty, personal and unbecoming of the office we are all aspiring to," Mr Prast said.
Several witnesses to Wednesday night's confrontation said Mr Banks was taking a question from the floor when Mr Williams interjected, telling him to "stop lying".
Mr Banks retorted, "Stop drinking."
Manukau Mayor Len Brown reportedly stepped in to calm things down.
Yesterday, Mr Williams said National Party members attended the meeting to heckle candidates and Mr Banks joined in in the same tone, "making unacceptable comments which I took exception to".
"I stood up and stood in front of him and said, 'How dare you say something like that, in a public forum; what a shocking thing to say to me'," he said.
Mr Williams said an accusation from blogger and long-time opponent Cameron Slater that he "staggered clearly drunk" into the meeting late was completely incorrect.
He said he had rushed from addressing a Takapuna Beach Business Association meeting, at which he had had one glass of wine.
Association general manager Peter White and chairman Dave Donaldson said Mr Williams had one or a maximum of two glasses of wine before making a speech.
"He wasn't drunk when he gave his presentation. He certainly wasn't drunk when he left the meeting," Mr White said.
Mr Williams shot to notoriety in March for allegedly urinating outside the council offices and driving his car home after a day of drinking. He said he was not over the alcohol limit after starting drinking at 1pm and continuing on and off until 9.30pm.
Yesterday, Mr Banks did not want to discuss Wednesday night's altercation, but issued a statement saying Mr Williams' behaviour had been unacceptable at consecutive joint candidate meetings.
"I am happy to engage in vigorous and robust debate on the issues affecting Auckland. However, Mr Williams has been more interested in aggressive personal attacks," the statement said.
This morning Mr Williams issued a statement saying he had never made personal attack on any of the mayoral candidates and was disappointed to read Mr Banks' comments in the Herald.
Mr Williams said instead Mr Banks had launched "concerted series of personal attacks on me" and had been joined by supporters who actively disrupted candidates' meetings.
"They are constantly interjecting and haranguing many of the candidates but in particular Len Brown and myself, using insulting and demeaning personal attacks," Mr Williams said.
He said the hecklers were linked to politically aligned blogsites and wanted to "create disharmony both at the meetings and via the internet".
There were mixed views yesterday from other Super City candidates who had been at the meeting about who was to blame.
North Shore ward candidate Chris Darby said Mr Williams went chest-to-chest with Mr Banks, who he said withdrew and went to sit down.
Mayoral candidate Colin Craig said Mr Banks had a vocal, one-eyed support team who constantly interrupted Mr Williams.
"It was extremely childish. There were no punches or anything physical involved other than the two were right in each other's face.
"It was like two cocks in a cock fight."
Mayoral candidate Penny Bright said it was a disgraceful display by Mr Banks and his National Party supporters.
North Shore ward candidate and former Alliance MP Grant Gillon had unrelated troubles when he left the church hall meeting - someone had vandalised his campaign vehicle, tearing off rubber trims.
Cartoon / Rod Emmerson
