Awards for campaign's outstanding or regrettable newsbites

On the final day of the election campaign, it's time to hand out the booby prizes. The Herald election team presents the 2002 CORN (Campaign's Outstanding or Regrettable Newsbites) awards.

Drumroll please ...

BIGGEST COMEBACK: No, not Winston Peters or even Peter Dunne. TVNZ's infamous worm returned from its 1996 demolition job on Jim Bolger to catapult the United Future leader - formerly known as Peter Who? - into overnight political stardom.

BIGGEST 48-HOUR WONDER: Nicky Hager's Seeds of Distrust book, aka Corngate, which exploded in the middle of the campaign like a neutron bomb. Two days later the smoke cleared. Everyone was still standing (except maybe TV3's John Campbell) but Labour's relationship with the Greens looked mortally wounded.

DUMBEST BUT MOST EFFECTIVE SLOGAN: nimrodEasy. "Can we fix it? Yes, we can!" Winston Peters' attempt to play Bob the Builder and his bizarre three-finger salute were ridiculed at first. By the end of the campaign, the whole country knew them both. NZ First also wins the Colgate-Mrs Marsh award for annoying advertising you can't get out of your head.

BEST CAMPAIGN LAUNCH: Labour. Professional, slick, high energy - even Jonathan Hunt was clapping along.

WORST CAMPAIGN LAUNCH: National. Lacklustre and amateur. The empty seats said it all.

BEST CAMPAIGN: NZ First. Stunningly simple, with three basic messages - action on immigration, treaty grievances and crime. It worked.

SECOND-BEST CAMPAIGN: Act, which latched on to the crime issue first and never let go.

BIGGEST SWING: The Greens, at least in the long term. They slipped back in the last week, but at one point the Greens had one in five voters under 40 heading their way, mainly over GM. This issue won't go away.

WORST CAMPAIGN: National. Where do we start? Well, try completing this sentence at home: "The National Party stands for ... "

BIGGEST MISTAKE (1): Labour. Helen Clark went negative on her prospective coalition partner the Greens in week three. By the time she realised her mistake and backtracked, the polling damage was done.

BIGGEST MISTAKE (2): National. Bill English effectively conceded defeat in a TV interview by saying : "I'm going to spend the next 10 years rebuilding National as the dominant force in New Zealand politics and I'm going to get a good result on election day and that's going to be a big step forward." Game over.

SCARIEST MOMENT: Still to come for all National MPs and party faithful as they watch the results come in on Saturday. This could be the worst defeat in the party's history. And the bloodletting won't stop there.

WORST CAREER MOVE: Rangitoto College principal Allan Peachey, environmentalist Guy Salmon and other would-be MPs, who were given "safe" places on National's list - until the polls collapsed. At least Peachey can go back to school on Monday.

BIGGEST FARCE: Business audiences who wanted National's thoughts on the economy having to listen to official finance spokesman David Carter while Don Brash sat on the sidelines. The Auckland Chamber of Commerce cancelled when offered Carter.

OFFICIAL BEST DRESSED: Winston Peters. Pinstripe suits, pocket handkerchiefs, "gangster chic". Yawn. Old ladies might like it, but they'll probably vote for him anyway.

ALTERNATIVE BEST DRESSED: Laila Harre in her leather jacket (but not the puffy cream sleeves, Laila). The Harre jacket posters are now hot property out West - but will the young men of Waitakere vote for her on Saturday?

TACKIEST PHOTO OPPORTUNITY: Act releasing its sentencing policy at the pizza parlour where Marcus Doig was murdered. It worked though.

BEST PUT-DOWN: It's hard to go past Pete Hodgson: "I wonder how the Greens can care so much for the planet when they spend so little time on it." But for sheer venom, we like Helen Clark on her arch enemy, John Campbell, as she told radio listeners that people wanted her to "take the little creep on".

BEST CHEAP SHOT: Winston again, with the "black widow" jibe at Helen Clark for devouring her political partners. Nasty but effective.

OFFICIAL BIGGEST ISSUE: Health, said this week's Herald DigiPoll survey. Yet it hardly made a dent in the campaign, once Labour shut down the Kaitaia Hospital row. The prospect of cuts in hospital services as health boards plunge back into the red should have registered, but National couldn't get any traction.

REAL BIGGEST ISSUE: Coalitions and tactical voting, as usual. Better get used to it - this is MMP.

BIGGEST SLEEPER ISSUE: Qantas buying into Air New Zealand. Watch for a backlash when the truth seeps out about this deal and the health board deficits.

BEST DAMAGE CONTROL: Young Nick's Head. Could be the fastest resolution of a Maori land grievance. Closely followed by Kaitaia Hospital.

WORST DAMAGE CONTROL: Not the teachers' strike, whatever Bill English says. Labour's dumbest move was its new sentencing law, which promised to get tough on crime but allowed ordinary criminals to get out on parole after one third of their sentence instead of two thirds. Act couldn't believe its luck.

LOWEST PROFILE: The Alamein Kopu Missing In Action award goes jointly to two usually irrepressible MPs - Act's Rodney Hide (off the radar since his party refused to let him stand in Epsom) and the Greens' Rod Donald (close to invisible in the telegenic halo of co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons).

HELEN CLARK'S BIGGEST NIGHTMARE: Never mind the Greens - will Laila Harre upset Labour's Lynne Pillay in Waitakere? Pillay should get home, but even her union backers have her only fractionally ahead of the Alliance leader.

BEST HOLIDAY TIMING (1): Former National leader Jenny Shipley, apparently last spotted in Samoa.

BEST HOLIDAY TIMING (2): Green list candidate and Seeds of Distrust publisher Craig Potton, who was also in Samoa - not with Jenny, we understand - when Hager's book came out. Rod Donald later explained he was collecting the surfer vote.

MOST CYNICAL PR SPIN: Come in Nicky Hager. Despite accusing the Government of hiding the full truth (with some justification), Hager released his book amid obsessive secrecy and brilliant media manipulation. (Honourable mention: the New Zealand Rugby Football Union and its PR firm, Porter Novelli, for trying to bury the 57-page report into the World Cup fiasco by releasing it at 6pm in election week.)

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