KEY POINTS:
Leading contender a songster from way back
If Len Brown is elected Mayor of Manukau City you are likely to hear about it, literally.
The 50-year-old lawyer, who grew up performing in amateur theatre companies, serenades his potential voters with classics such as Eidelweiss from the Sound
of Music or, spare us, Amazing Grace.
"Maori finish their speeches with a waiata so I thought I could extend that a bit with a song wherever I go," Mr Brown says.
"People respond well to it. You don't get too many mayors who sing to the people."
It's a sunny day in Papatoetoe, the town in which Mr Brown spent his teenage years.
He has just come out of a meeting at the local cosmopolitan club with elderly residents. They tell him they are appalled by prostitution in the area, the gradual decay of their town centre and a plethora of liquor outlets, some of which are open all hours of the day.
"Our town never used to be like this," says Monica Moore, 64 and a Papatoetoe resident for the past 34 years.
"Now people are too afraid to walk on the streets at night."
On his way to the next stop at a local garage - where he meets his colleague and community board candidate Watchman Rivers - Mr Brown points to a bottle store which used to be a National Bank branch on the corner of Kolmar Rd and St George St.
"The fact that you swap from a trading bank to a liquor store is probably symptomatic about how Papatoetoe feels about some of the challenges it's got, and it's poignant."
Despite these problems he says there's a lot of pride in places like "Pap" and points to the neatly kept gardens and tidy streets near the town centre.
"It's important to look after our local communities and little towns rather than the bigger Manukau monolith by making sure we continually reinvest in them and not allow them to dilapidate," Mr Brown says.
People tell him there's a "diminishing sense of pride" in Manukau with unsightly graffiti like a rash all over the city. It's something he's serious about getting on top of.
"I'm saying there needs to be a major refocusing of our resources to deal with the problem."
Mr Brown, who says he has knocked on 35,000 doors and has walked 2000 kilometres during his three-year campaign, stops people to tell them he's going to be the city's next mayor.
"There's a positive response when I door-knock. Many appreciate someone's even bothered to come and meet them and someone's taking the time of day to listen to their concerns."
Despite the late and much-publicised addition of Willie Jackson to the mayoral race, Mr Brown is unfazed and is supremely confident this is his time after missing out to Sir Barry Curtis at the last election by just 566 votes.
His target is 30,000 votes and he is sure he has at least 25,000 in the bank.
A former four-term councillor, Mr Brown has a strong involvement with the Otara Youth Action group and says his campaigning has taken him right across Manukau.
"The one thing I learned from Sir Barry Curtis is you've got to be the mayor of the whole city and you've got to be able to gain the support and confidence of the people right across the whole city."
Olympian puts his running shoes back on
Mayoral hopeful and former Olympian Dick Quax says he's learned a lot since running third in Manukau's local body elections three years ago.
"I guess I learned I needed to work harder, get out and meet more people and get more material about myself out there," he says.
"Most people know me because of my profile as an athlete but when people know about my policies they will vote for me."
The 59-year-old, who announced in February he would contest the mayoralty for the second time, is doing the rounds at the Botany Downs shopping centre but not having too much luck - most of the potential voters appear to be from out of town or from overseas.
Mr Quax has reiterated the familiar themes of safety in the community and more police and says it's "criminal" that there's one sworn police officer for every 1500 people in the Eastern district where he lives, almost a third of the national average.
"In Otara the proliferation of tinny houses is a huge problem, and liquor and gambling outlets are concerns.
"I'm somebody who wants to do something about the gangs and crime, Willie Jackson called me 'Dirty Harry', which I thought was an endorsement."
Mr Quax is part of the People's Choice team, which has 48 members running for various elected positions.
He says his point of difference is his stance on council expenditure, which he believes has become excessive, with salary increases well above inflation level.
"The private sector are not getting the kind of raises that the public sector are and I want to know why that is, particularly when council staff have increased by 33 per cent and the salary bill has gone from $40 million to $70 million in the last five years.
"Consultancy fees have also gone up from $9 million to $20 million - an increase of 120 per cent.
"My contract to the people of Manukau is that I will dig into those figures and find out why we are spending all that money on those people."
He's also passionate about waste- water charges, which he calls "a real inequity", particularly for the elderly and small business owners.
"There are people who are spending $20 a quarter on water and are spending just under $100 to get rid of the same amount - that's a real imposition for the elderly."
Mr Quax has supported a uniform annual general charge of $300 for Manukau ratepayers, which would see slightly lower rates for people living in the eastern suburbs and an increase for those living in areas like Manurewa.
Media man in his element at the markets
It's Saturday morning at the Otara markets and Willie Jackson is wearing a neatly pressed suit, in contrast to the casual threads most choose to do their business in.
Despite his formal appearance, the Radio Live talkback host is stopped by wellwishers every few steps he takes.
The markets are packed mainly with Pacific Islanders and Maori scoping the cheap T-shirts or getting early-morning kai - most of which would give the Heart Foundation palpitations.
A few Pakeha take time to chat to him, some saying they'll vote for him.
A Korean man selling "every item for only $5" stops him to shake his hand.
"Kia ora bro, kei te pehea koe?" he asks a surprised Mr Jackson, who in return says he's fine in Maori and asks how the man knows how to speak te reo.
A little further down the aisle a Chilean couple stop him to say "we love you and want to vote for you". Why?
"Because he listens to all the people and all the communities," says Juan Carlos Rodriguez, who runs the Mangere Bridge-based Radio Austral, New Zealand's only Spanish-language radio station.
Two minutes later they are wearing Mr Jackson's campaign T-shirts and are part of the team handing out pamphlets and chanting "vote for Willie".
"The campaign's going great," says Mr Jackson. "You can see from the reaction I'm getting that people are excited. I don't know if Len Brown or Dick Quax would get the same kind of reaction here."
More handshakes, hongi, kisses and pats on the back. Mr Jackson cracks a few jokes and is warm and engaging with a couple of elderly Rarotongan women.
A lot of the talk centres around the senseless murder of Auckland Grammar student Augustine Borrell outside a Herne Bay party, and while transport, housing affordability, employment and the environment all get a mention, it's community safety that is driving the Jackson campaign.
"Most of the candidates have got similar views on rates and water rates and transport but this election is really about safety for Manukau.
"I think a hard line has to be taken with gangs, no doubt about it, but you have got to know how to work with the community groups and we need more police."
Mr Jackson makes no apologies for his high media profile and the possible advantage it may give him over the other candidates, saying this would probably give the city more clout.
