Wellington Mayoral candidate Andrew Little speaks to Ryan Bridge on Herald NOW about his campaign, policies and recent scandals that have rocked the race to lead the Council.
New polling has revealed Wellingtonians are favouring Andrew Little as the frontrunner for the capital’s next mayor.
A Curia poll of 750 Wellingtonians was commissioned by rates reform lobby group Common Ground Aotearoa and shows out of 540 prospective voters, 30% are backing Little, followed by Ray Chung at 13%,Diane Calvert at 11%, Karl Tiefenbacher at 6% and Alex Baker at 4%.
The poll, which was done over the phone and online, ran between August 22 to 28 and has a margin of error of +/- 3.6%.
Previous Curia polling before Little had announced his mayoral bid had Ray Chung in the lead with 30% support.
The new polling does not account for the single transferable voting (STV) system, where voters rank their preferred candidate in order, with Curia only asking for voters’ first preference.
Little, the former Labour Party leader, had the same 30% support among men and women, although women were more likely to be undecided at 40% compared with 25% of men.
Local issues most important to voters were rates at 23% and water infrastructure at 17%.
Little had the best support with voters who care most about the environment and climate change at 49% support, and water infrastructure at 45%. Chung narrowly led among voters who care most about rates and cycleways.
Former Labour Party leader Andrew Little is running for the Wellington mayoralty.
Polling during the last Wellington election in 2022 had Paul Eagle leading the race following by Tory Whanau. Eagle eventually placed third.
The group behind the poll are campaigning for the new council to switch to a land value rates system, rather than establishing rates from capital value.
Common Ground Aotearoa researcher Jesse Richardson said with 40% of respondents saying they support rating based on land value, the poll shows a mandate for change.
“Not only is this policy a good progressive idea that has backing from economists, but it also has strong popular support as well,” Richardson said.
Voting opens on September 9 and closes at noon on Saturday, October 11. Provisional results will be released the same day with the final results declared on October 16.
Ethan Manera is a New Zealand Herald journalist based in Wellington. He joined NZME in 2023 as a broadcast journalist with Newstalk ZB and is interested in local issues, politics, and property in the capital. He can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz.
