KEY POINTS:
Wanted: someone to head a team of 20 to govern New Zealand's largest city. With no executive powers. Expect to be verbally abused by your fellow board members who plan to usurp the job. Every board decision will be made public and plastered across national headlines. Candidates are
advised to spend at least $100,000 on the job application. No weekends.
"You are damned if you do, damned if you don't," is how incumbent Mayor Dick Hubbard describes the criticism of the Auckland City Council, the reason he believes so few have put their hand up for the top job.
With three months to the October elections, only four candidates have expressed interest in being Mayor of Auckland - Hubbard, predecessor John Banks, adult entertainment entrepreneur Steve Crow and councillor Dr John Hinchcliff.
Other high-profile names - former PM Mike Moore, ex-All Blacks coach John Hart, former top public servant Christine Rankin, broadcaster Paul Holmes, Auckland DHB boss Wayne Brown - have been linked with a tilt at the job, but publicly protest that they're not interested.
Why do so few want to wear the mayoral chains?
First, a campaign is likely to cost the candidate a six-figure sum. They will need veteran political campaigners to marshall a team of volunteers to knock on doors, put up billboards and hand out flyers in an exhausting race.
Even if you win, the mayor can end up being a loser.
Dr Hinchcliff, a first-term councillor and former vice-chancellor of AUT, says people overestimate the power of the mayor, who is only one vote around a table of 20.
On top of juggling administration, political power plays and being the face of Auckland, Mayor Hubbard points out the Queen City is scrutinised more than any other council, a media fishbowl where peculiarly Auckland issues become national news.
When Aucklanders were outraged by a council decision to remove trees from the CBD - dubbed the Queen St Massacre - Hubbard was on his Christmas holiday, enjoying a pint in a pub in Tuatapere, Southland.
"I was in this wee country town and the locals were well-versed on what was happening. They told me in no uncertain terms where I could stick the trees and it involved a painful part of my anatomy," chuckles Hubbard.
Abrasive pornographer Steve Crow was the first to announce his candidacy for the mayoralty last year.
Given his penchant for promotion, many thought Crow was yanking the mayoral chains after raising Hubbard's conservative ire over the Boobs on Bikes parade down Queen St.
However, the ex-merchant banker has started filming for his upcoming campaign and says he will not shy away from making crunch decisions.
"Politicians are worried about keeping their job, rather than getting the job done, but I don't give a damn if I'm in for one term and become hated," he says. Brave words, given Banks was turfed out at the 2004 election for pushing for a motorway across Hobson Bay, against the will of the people.
A contrite Banks says he has learned his lesson, and announced his candidacy as soon as the America's Cup stopped hogging the headlines.
The radio host and ex-National MP says the mayoralty is the second toughest election in the country, after running for PM - a hard-fought, expensive race with no guarantee of success. "And once you're elected, most people wouldn't be able to get out of bed in the morning with some of the abuse you're expected to take," he says. "From the outside the high office looks exciting but it is hard work."
"Being the mayor is pretty bruising, eh," says Matt McCarten, the former mayoral candidate. "Why would you want to be shat on?"
The Unite union boss says there is still room for an outside contender to split the field of "four old white guys" if there is no clear leader close to polling day, a situation similar to when Hubbard won by a landslide in 2004.
Both former businessmen Banks and Hubbard made the mistake of acting like a chief executive who called the shots on council, McCarten says, when in reality they had only one vote. Mayors are perceived as having great power when, in fact, the leader of the majority ticket is the power broker.
Case in point was Hubbard who, within weeks of being elected mayor in 2004, was effectively usurped by his deputy, long-time leader of the left-wing City Vision ticket Dr Bruce Hucker.
While Hubbard was out of town, Hucker revealed his plans for the social blueprints of the city, naming himself as the architect.
The pair later presented a united front, but the power struggle continued behind closed doors, with Hubbard twice failing to get the council numbers to roll Hucker as deputy.
Without a majority vote, the elected mayor could be a "lame duck", says Cameron Brewer, of the Newmarket Business Association. A former aide to Banks, Jenny Shipley and Rodney Hide, Brewer says ratepayers must vote in a mayor who also has the backing of a majority.
