KEY POINTS:
A growing field of politicians, activists and a porn king are setting out to take the chains of office from Auckland City Mayor Dick Hubbard.
With a week to go until nominations close for October's local body elections, the mayoral race is turning into a stampede, with 12 confirmed starters.
A Herald-DigiPoll last month showed Mr Hubbard faces an uphill battle to break the bogey of one-term mayors with his old rival John Banks leaping to an early lead.
The first poll of the mayoralty had Mr Banks, the former mayor, on 43.2 per cent, 5.8 points clear of Mr Hubbard on 37.4.
The poll was taken when five people had said they would run. Since then, several others, including Heart of the City chief executive Alex Swney, have entered the race.
The flamboyant Mr Swney is offering an alternative to voters who do not like Mr Hubbard and do not want to go back to Mr Banks. What impact he will have will be unknown until the next scientific poll.
Last month's poll showed adult entertainment businessman Steve Crow on 7.9 per cent, activist Lisa Prager on 6.3 per cent and first-term councillor Dr John Hinchcliff on 5.2 per cent.
Since then, activists Coralie van Camp and Elaine West, retired businessman Raymond Presland, Scruff Ralph and Phil O'Connor have also come forward.
The deputy leader of the Direct Democracy Party - which promotes binding, citizen-initiated referendums for local and national government, - Steve Taylor, is also standing.
Local government expert Dr Graham Bush said some candidates were standing to push causes. Others knew little about the job.
Dr Bush said the large field made a mockery of using first-past-the-post for local body elections where the winner was unlikely to get 50 per cent of the vote. Mr Hubbard won the 2004 mayoral contest with 51.2 per cent of the vote from a field of seven candidates.
Dr Bush was disappointed the council had not taken the opportunity to change to the single transferable vote (STV) voting system.
Dr Hinchcliff told a media breakfast yesterday that it would be difficult to break the perception that the mayoral contest was a two-horse race, but he would give it his best shot.
Known affectionately by supporters as "Dr John", the former academic said he would be pushing transport - including light rail to the airport - sustainability and support for a single regional council while retaining strong local government.
He wanted to see people engaged in the city and better long-term planning.
Dr Hinchcliff headed Auckland University of Technology for 20 years, gained university status for the organisation and by the time he left in 2004, oversaw a $192 million budget and 1500 staff.
He believed his management experience of a public sector organisation and the politics in academia qualified him for the mayoral job. He wanted to restore some of the mana that went with the position and drop the "pretentious title" of His Worship.
Meanwhile, the Herald understands former WINZ chief executive Christine Rankin will announce next week that she is standing for a North Shore seat on the Auckland Regional Council as a Citizens & Ratepayers Now candidate.
Mayoral field
-John Banks
-Steve Crow
-John Hinchcliff
-Dick Hubbard
-Phil O'Connor
-Lisa Prager
-Raymond Presland
-Scruff Ralph
-Alex Swney
-Steve Taylor
-Coralie van Camp
-Elaine West
