Wanganui's ousted Horizons Region councillor Greg Cox is resigned to losing his seat at the council table.
He polled a close third among the three people contesting the two Wanganui seats at the regional council.
Asked how he felt about it, he said: "Que sera, sera."
He can't explain the election result, but said Wanganui people were totally disengaged from Horizons and many didn't know what the council did.
"They can't get over the fact that they think Palmerston North is trying to do them over all the time."
Mr Cox proved that wasn't true by getting the rest of the region to pay 30 per cent of the cost of repairing the Anzac Pde stopbanks.
"That's a huge amount of money. In 18 months to two years, people will realise that the region has actually helped them," he said.
He predicts there will be less fighting in the new council, because Ruapehu councillor Mike Plowman and Wanganui councillor Bob Walker will both be gone.
"There was always two that were against everything we tried to do."
Wanganui would be disadvantaged this term by its two councillors, David Cotton and Rod Pearce, both being new.
"They will not hit their straps for two years. Lots of things have happened in the last three years that the new councillors will not know about."
Having Bruce Rollinson representing Ruapehu would be useful, because Mr Rollinson was a vegetable grower and rules in Horizons' new One Plan would impact on growers.
"There's a lot of problems going to happen with Horizons and with the horticulture guys up there."
Although he's out of the picture, Mr Cox will be keeping an eye on Horizons developments.
He says he'll watch to see if the Anzac Pde stopbanks are repaired this summer, as agreed.
Also up for repair this summer are the South Spit groynes that keep the Whanganui River current sweeping past the port and out to sea, rather than cutting southward. Wanganui District and Horizons Regional councils are going halves on the repair cost.
Horizons might baulk at that if Wanganui signed a deal with the Port of Taranaki to use its port to service offshore ironsand mining, Mr Cox said.
He'll also watch to see whether ratepayers are asked to pay for forestry on eroding hill country, replacing money from the Government's Afforestation Grants Scheme.
"I just hope like hell that that doesn't happen," he said.
He's annoyed Horizons failed to enforce Wanganui District Council's wastewater consent while he was a councillor.
"Two years with no report back from the council. That's embarrassing on my watch."
As a councillor, Mr Cox put a lot of effort into prioritising spending, and he hoped that would continue.
Overall, he was pleased with what he did. "I have definitely made a change and I can see where I've been. It's just a shame I didn't get back there."