Audrey Young: Relaxed Harawira looks to be gaining traction

Hone Harawira. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Last week it was Kelvin Davis' week in the Te Tai Tokerau byelection race.

Maori Television's Native Affairs poll on Monday gave Labour a commodity that any party treasures in an election - momentum. The channel's poll put him and Mana's Hone Harawira on level pegging.

Davis performed very well in the channel's live debate last Monday, and he was supported by a battalion of Labour MPs.

But momentum is difficult to maintain - that much has been evident from the media coverage over the past three days.

And it looks as though Harawira is starting the last week of the campaign with momentum.

In fact, as the pressure has increased, Harawira has looked more relaxed.

There have been no big blunders, so far.

He was the stand-out in yesterday's debate on TVNZ's Marae, though it turned out to be a much more sedate affair than Native Affairs.

His appearance on TV3's raunchy 7 Days show on Friday night was a risk given that the comedians on it have virtually no boundaries, but it turned out to be a hilarious treat.

He has resisted his natural inclination to make big statements for shock-value.

Instead he has gone for a kinder, more conciliatory Hone who can laugh at himself including on some of the issues that have incensed people, such as dating Pakeha.

His argument last week for a Maori Parliament sounded more like a Maori committee.

His positivity extended to his interview in the Weekend Herald and on Marae in which he answered his critics who would suggest he is incapable of being a constructive player with real examples of real achievements.

Harawira is also making greater use of Kelvin Davis' greatest weakness - the fact that Davis is already an MP - a list MP.

Davis was not as impressive yesterday as he has been. He was still very much on message, re-using his theme of "successful Maori futures", but that sounds as though it emerged from a focus group somewhere.

He responded strongly to Harawira's claims that the Maori MPs in Labour have to toe someone else's party line, arguing that Maori MPs have strong influence on policy behind closed doors.

Davis will attempt to regain momentum this week with his greatest asset, the Labour Party machine.

The organising abilities of Labour and its affiliated unions are formidable in full flight. They are capable of mobilising an army in the heavily concentrated parts of the electorate, West Auckland and Whangarei.

The avuncular Solomon Tipene has done nothing in the past week to suggest that the Maori Party is back in contention - other than to say yesterday that he thinks it is back in contention. On 15 per cent last week, support is likely to erode from Tipene to the two front runners. Where it falls may be the biggest factor by the end of the week.