KEY POINTS:
Auckland City Mayor Dick Hubbard is out to break the bogey of one-term mayors in the country's largest city - and it looks as if he will have to beat old rival John Banks to win a second term.
Mr Hubbard, who has struggled at times with the move from being his own boss to politics, said some stability was needed in the tough cauldron of Auckland City politics.
Mr Banks and his predecessor, Christine Fletcher, had heavy losses after one term each and since 1980, only Dame Catherine Tizard and Les Mills have won more than one term.
"I don't regard myself as a professional politician," Mr Hubbard told the Herald yesterday.
"Rather I regard myself as using my business skills to roll up my sleeves and run Auckland City in a business-like manner. I think it is appropriate to have a degree of stability."
He said it was exceedingly difficult to get everything done in one three-year term and there were a number of projects he wanted to see through.
They included waterfront developments, more work on urban design, heritage and sustainability and pushing regional matters such as rail electrification.
On the touchy issue of rates - household rates soared 9.7 per cent and 13.4 per cent in the past two years under a centre-left controlled council - Mr Hubbard said most of the increases had gone into targeted rates for transport, volcanic cones, urban design and heritage.
Mr Banks is expected to target rates - "everything is more expensive and nothing's any better" - if he decides to contest the mayoralty he lost by nearly 20,000 votes to Mr Hubbard in 2004.
Mr Banks said he was interested in the mayoralty but it would be another couple of months before he would decide whether to stand again. His own unofficial polling and door-knocking was "very encouraging".
"I would like to do it. But I can't give up a huge amount of time and I can't bring together a big, broad-based team unless we are in with a real chance."
A senior member of the centre-right Citizens & Ratepayers Now ticket said Mr Banks would have to show the public that he had changed his style to have any chance of winning the mayoralty - a view the polarising and adversarial politician of 27 years acknowledged.
Mr Banks said he had made mistakes and learned some hard lessons.
The Eastern Highway was a promise he should never had made, a promise he tried to keep and that cost him the mayoralty.
If he ran again, there would be "a lot less Banksie and much more inclusiveness but with strong principles around leadership".
Auckland City deputy mayor and City Vision leader Dr Bruce Hucker said he was not running for mayor at October's local body elections. He stood in 2004 but pulled out when his support collapsed after Mr Hubbard entered the race.
The only other confirmed candidate for the mayoralty is porn king Steve Crow, who threw the council and city into a tiff last August with his Boobs on Bikes parade down Queen St that attracted about 100,000 people.
Mr Crow said he wanted to move the council away from controlling people's lives to controlling the city's assets.
Several other rumoured contenders for the Auckland City chains - including former Prime Minister and World Trade Organisation boss Mike Moore, former deputy mayor David Hay and Auckland Chamber of Commerce chief executive and Auckland Regional councillor Michael Barnett - have ruled out standing.
Mayor Dick Hubbard
* Age: 60.
* Married with two children.
* Mayor of Auckland: Since 2004.
* Started Hubbards Foods.
* Also founded New Zealand Businesses for Social Responsibility (now the Sustainable Business Network). Defeated Banks in 2004.
John Banks
* Age: 60.
* Married with three adopted children.
* Mayor of Auckland: 2001-2004.
* Former National MP and Minister of Police, Minister of Tourism, and Minister of Sport. Resigned from parliament in 1999. In 2001 he challenged Christine Fletcher and won.
