Audrey Young: Lessons from campaign trail

If Labour's David Shearer ran the safest campaign in his bid to win tomorrow's Mt Albert byelection, National's Melissa Lee was the most dangerous.

Her inability to see political danger was on display yesterday at the last public meeting the main four candidates attended when she told the audience she earned $2 an hour.

It was not funny - and it was not true.

Her $131,000 annual salary means that if she is paid for every second of every hour of every day, including those when she is fast asleep, she earns $14.99 an hour.

National's decision to ditch Labour's Waterview tunnel, its poor handling of the Super City proposals and Melissa Lee's misjudged comments on criminals from South Auckland ended the prospect of a blue upset in the Labour stronghold.

Melissa Lee was a list-only candidate at the general election in November last year and has had no political apprenticeship. But that cannot be an excuse for everything.

Act's candidate, list MP John Boscawen, has had no apprenticeship but suggesting that he is low-paid is not something he would ever have said.

Mr Boscawen is a very intense campaigner for whatever he believes in, as was evident in his personal crusade against the Electoral Finance Act before entering Parliament.

The campaign for a community has exposed a softer side to him and exposed him to a more effective way of campaigning for a low-tax Act policy.

He is responsible for one of the most enduring images of the campaign, the lamington placed upon his head by a protester, which he left there until he had finished his allotted speaking time.

Greens Co-leader Russel Norman gained the most from the campaign other than votes. As the senior leader of the Greens leadership duo, but with little time as an MP, the campaign has given him experience and profile that he badly needed.

With a candidate that could qualify for Mr Puniverse, the party had the cheekiest but catchiest slogan - "get more muscle with Russel."

Mr Shearer shied away from controversy and mentioned "community" hundreds of times. With the Waterview tunnel policy, he projected himself as a local candidate running on a strong, local issue. He is the only one of the main contenders that is not an MP. That will change tomorrow.