Stehbens: Seat is Nats' for the taking

THE man who nearly wrested the Rotorua electorate seat off MP Steve Chadwick says it's National's for the taking this year.

Gil Stehbens returned to Auckland in 2005 after he was narrowly defeated by Mrs Chadwick at the last election. Three years on he says New Zealanders, including Rotorua residents, want change.

"It's highly likely the National candidate, whoever they are, will get in. Rotorua is most definitely a marginal seat now for Labour."

Mrs Chadwick has dismissed his comments, saying if Mr Stehbens was truly confident, he would be standing against her again.

The Takapuna dentist came within 662 votes of Mrs Chadwick, who was re-elected for a third term with 12,420 votes. Political commentators said a higher-profile local National candidate would have won the Rotorua electorate seat.

This year there are five National Party members competing for the Rotorua candidacy and they are all local.

They are forestry consultant Don Hammond, property investor Alan Hulton, lawyer Sandra Kai Fong, self-employed policy relationship manager Todd McClay, and Hamuera Mitchell, a self-employed businessman.

Mr Stehbens said he didn't know any of the hopefuls but on paper, they all appeared to have what it would take to do battle with Mrs Chadwick.

However, he said being local didn't mean they had the seat in the bag.

"I'm sure a local will have the passion and interest in seeing Rotorua do well but the same can be said of an outsider.

"It really doesn't matter where you're from or what race you are.

"What matters is having a clear vision for how you want to build Rotorua and how effective you'll be at doing it."

In the build-up to the 2005 election, Mr Stehbens said the National Party decided it would be "impossible" to win the electorate. As a result, his campaign was geared at encouraging people to give their party vote under MMP to National.

"That meant that I could only sell the party vote. The trouble was that some people didn't know who I was and that doesn't open any doors to promote the party vote anyway."

He said the successful candidate, to be decided March 19, should push both the candidate and party vote for National.

If Mrs Chadwick gained a seat in Parliament as a list MP and the electorate seat went to National, Rotorua residents should be pleased, Mr Stehbens said "Putting egos aside, having two MPs serving Rotorua's interests in Parliament can only be good for Rotorua."

Mrs Chadwick, however, said her election campaign was aimed at securing the electorate seat for a fourth term.

"Being a list MP, you don't have the same level of influence. I want to be in Government as the MP for Rotorua - that's our strategy."

She said Mr Stehbens lacked any credibility after claiming he was loyal to Rotorua, then returned to Auckland a month after losing the election.

"Why didn't he stand again if it's a shoe in? He hasn't bothered."

Asked for her views on the five National hopefuls, she said they were all "very different" and she would reserve making any further comments until the successful candidate was announced.