The Conservative Party has become the first non-parliamentary party to name a candidate in the Hawke's Bay region for this year's general election.
He is Waipawa dentist Stephen Jenkinson, who also stood for the party in the seat at the last election three years ago. Then he polled fourth of seven candidates as incumbent Craig Foss retained the seat for National with a majority of almost 10,000 votes.
The Conservatives regarded their campaign in Tukituki as promising, producing one of their 10 best results.
Dr Jenkinson was born in Hawke's Bay and has lived in the region most of his life, apart from studying at Otago University and five years overseas, mainly in the UK, and some time on volunteer work in Samoa and Africa.
He says Conservative policies better represent Bay values than those of other parties.