Banks frontrunner for super city mayor: poll

Auckland Mayor John Banks has emerged as the frontrunner for the job of heading a new Auckland regional super city, according to survey results released today.

Mr Banks got 17 per cent support in the UMR Research poll, in which those questioned were given a choice of 21 names that had been mentioned in the media as possible candidates for the super city mayoralty.

Second most preferred was Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey with 10 per cent backing, followed by businessman Stephen Tindall, the founder of The Warehouse, with 9 per cent.

Former National Party leader Don Brash, Manukau City Mayor Len Brown and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters (all 6 per cent) filled the next three spots.

A total of 483 Aucklanders were questioned last month in the telephone survey, which UMR said had a margin of error of 4.7 per cent.

UMR said it recognised that some of those on the list of possible candidates might have no intention on standing, while other names might have appeared in the media since the survey was done.

Managing director Stephen Mills said the results showed that Mr Banks would probably win a contest that was run on a multi-candidate basis.

However, Mr Banks would be vulnerable to a "stop Banks" opponent if the candidate field developed into a two-horse race, Mr Mills said.

"His ratings of how well he would do the job are only modest and leave him open to challenge."

A total of 33 per cent thought Mr Banks would make a good mayor of the new super city, 24 per cent were neutral, and 31 per cent thought he would do a poor or fairly poor job.

Meanwhile, support for the super city proposal was evenly balanced, with 45 per cent in favour and 43 per cent against.

- NZPA