The Super City is starting to resemble a retirement home for mayors and members of Parliament.
Nine existing or former mayors and five MPs are seeking the Super City mayoralty or a seat on the Auckland Council or a local board.
The latest to join the queue is Papakura Mayor Calum Penrose.
Auckland City Mayor and former National MP John Banks, Manukau Mayor Len Brown and North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams want to be the first mayor of the Super City.
The job comes with a salary of $240,000 a year and a multimillion-dollar office budget.
Winning the mayoralty also guarantees a box seat at the Rugby World Cup and $320,000 to wine and dine big-wigs in town for the cup festivities.
Whoever gains the top job could have four or five current or former mayors for company round the Auckland Council table.
If Mr Banks lands the job, there is a good chance he will be working with Christine Fletcher, the former Auckland City mayor he deposed in 2001.
Back then, he called her lazy and arrogant. These days, they get on like a house on fire.
She is contesting one of two seats in the Albert-Eden-Roskill ward.
Councillors on the Auckland Council will be paid a salary of $80,000.
The mayoral winner could also be sharing the stage with Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee, whose experience and forthright views on regional matters such as transport, parks and environmental protection are unlikely to languish in the background.
He is contesting the plum, single-member Waitemata and Gulf ward.
Other mayors are vowing to stand up for their communities at the Super City headquarters in Queen St.
They include former North Shore Mayor George Wood, contesting one of two seats in the North Shore ward, Rodney Mayor and former Act Party MP Penny Webster, contesting the single-member Rodney ward, and Mr Penrose, seeking one of two seats in the Manurewa-Papakura ward.
In true political style, Mr Penrose yesterday described himself as a "reluctant politician", but said he had been overwhelmed by the support and encouragement he had received from community leaders and residents.
Long-serving Labour MP and former Papakura Mayor George Hawkins has announced his conditional retirement from Parliament.
If he is elected to the Manurewa local board in October, he will not stand again at next year's general election in Manurewa.
He will, however, face a drop in salary from $131,000 as an MP to $35,400 as a Manurewa local board member.
Another former Labour MP, Richard Northey, whose local government career stretches back to 1979 and who served nine years in Parliament, has the prospect of extending his political career as a councillor in the single-member Maungakiekie-Tamaki ward.
THE RETREADS
Mayors and ex-mayors standing for the Super City
* John Banks - Auckland City Mayor 2001-2004 and 2007-10
* Len Brown - Manukau City Mayor 2007-10
* Christine Fletcher - Auckland City Mayor 1998-2001
* George Hawkins - Papakura Mayor 1983-1992
* Mike Lee - Auckland Regional Council chairman 2004-10
* Calum Penrose - Papakura Mayor 2007-10
* Penny Webster - Rodney Mayor 2007-10
* Andrew Williams - North Shore Mayor 2007-10
* George Wood - North Shore Mayor 1998-2007
Former and current MPs
* John Banks - National MP 1981-1999
* Christine Fletcher - National MP 1990-99
* George Hawkins - Labour MP 1990-present
* Richard Northey - Labour MP 1984-1990 and 1993-96
* Penny Webster - Act MP 1999-2002
Mayors and MPs jostling for jobs
Len Brown. Photo / Greg Bowker
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