Veteran journo joins Banks

Veteran journalist Janet Wilson has signed up with Auckland City Mayor John Banks in what is shaping up as a titanic battle with Manukau Mayor Len Brown to be the first mayor of the Super City.

Ms Wilson, who provided media training for National Party leader John Key in 2008, will be providing strategic advice to Mr Banks' mayoral campaign on a part-time basis.

"I'm of that [centre-right] persuasion and I enjoy a campaign that is going to pit my candidate against other candidates," she said yesterday.

She joins a growing team of strategic and media advisers for Mr Banks, who, according to official and unofficial polls, is trailing first-term Manukau Mayor Mr Brown.

In mid-December, Mr Banks announced he had hired TV3 parliamentary press gallery reporter Scott Campbell "to provide media and political advice".

Mr Campbell, who is of Te Arawa descent, is expected to play the role of Mr Banks' day-to-day press secretary when he starts work on January 25.

Ms Wilson and Citizens & Ratepayers city councillor and "campaign strategist" Aaron Bhatnagar are expected to take a more strategic role as members of Mr Banks' "campaign mentor group" of about 20 insiders.

The mentor group also includes businessman Graham Wall, Newmarket Business Association and former Banks press secretary Cameron Brewer, Young Nationals northern region chairwoman Emma Mellow and others, whom Mr Banks will not name.

Mr Banks said he was privileged to have such an outstanding professional woman as Ms Wilson involved in the campaign team.

Ms Wilson stepped down from television production about 18 months ago after stints with Campbell Live and TV3.

She co-owns the media training and media strategy company Deadline with her partner and fellow journalist Bill Ralston.

She said she saw her role as similar to that of Mr Brown's media adviser, David Lewis, a former press secretary to Labour leader Helen Clark from 1995 to 2007.

The centre-left Mr Brown has a smaller team of advisers that includes campaign manager Conor Roberts, a young Labour organiser involved in the successful Mt Albert byelection, and experienced advertising executive Mike Hutcheson.