Local body elections: Is running on a ticket the antidote to minority mayors?

Local body election hoardings in Johnsonville. Photo / Mark Mitchell

ANALYSIS

After being elected, new mayors and councillors face the daunting prospect of making political decisions with a bunch of people they don't agree with.

The mayor, voted in by the general public, has just one vote around the council table.

Mayors do not lead a caucus, nor are they required to command a majority. Because their position does not rely on having the confidence of their councillors, they cannot be rolled like the recent string of National Party leaders.

This can be a recipe for disaster.

A version of such a disaster has played out in Wellington this term when Andy Foster claimed Wellington's mayoralty by just 62 votes.

The make-up of his council was much better suited to a left-leaning mayor, considering three Labour councillors and three Green councillors were successfully elected.

Councillors Tamatha Paul and Jill Day also got on as independents, but Paul is running on the Green Party ticket this time around and Day is leaving council to become the next Labour Party president.

To say Labour ticket candidate and one-term incumbent Justin Lester's election loss was a shock would be an understatement.

Foster has battled his way through the last term without commanding a majority and admitted on Newstalk ZB Wellington Mornings yesterday that he has been a "minority mayor".

One of the ways to avoid Foster's fate is to run on a ticket.

Foster is giving that a go this time around and is running on a ticket called "Together for Wellington", although it doesn't exactly appear to be going to plan.

Advertising previously circulated online suggested Foster's current deputy mayor Sarah Free was also running on the ticket, but Free confirmed she was in fact not.

The group has since been criticised for its lack of diversity, with all six candidates being men.

Wellington City Councillor Jill Day ran as an independent but is not standing again, instead becoming the next Labour Party president. Photo / Mark Mitchell

That criticism apparently resonated with Foster, who then didn't even want to go to Together for Wellington's own meet the candidates event at the weekend.

He reluctantly attended for 10 minutes after a fellow candidate told him people were expecting him.

Unfortunately for Foster, mayoral candidate Barbara McKenzie had also heard about the meeting through the grapevine and decided to show up.

McKenzie's online blog reveals she has claimed the Covid-19 vaccine is "very unsafe", has defended the Trump supporters who stormed the US Capitol, and has spoken favourably about the occupation at Parliament earlier this year.

Foster has subsequently distanced himself from McKenzie, explaining he had no idea she was going and that he did not align with her.

Furthermore, despite six candidates being listed as Together for Wellington on the campaign flyer, Foster has since clarified just three (including himself) are officially running under the banner.

Hutt City mayoral candidate Tony Stallinger appears to be doing a better job of the ticket he has put together called "United Hutt".

Firstly, the ticket was actually formally announced and outlined the candidates and what they believe in.

The group has stated commitments including stopping excessive rates increases, reviewing operations and fixing broken services.

There is diversity among the candidates, of which there are 12.

This is Stallinger's way of trying to build a majority ahead of election day so that if he and some of the others are successfully elected, he will not be starting from scratch.

But the real experts in this field are the political parties, in part because they have good resources and an established volunteer base.

Both Labour and the Greens are running ward candidates in Wellington City this year.

Unlike the vague banners of "Together for Wellington" and "United Hutt", voters have a clear and pre-existing idea of what values party candidates have.

They have been through a local party selection process, which some voters find comforting because it means there has been some level of vetting.

Sarah Free has confirmed she is not part of the Together for Wellington ticket after she was listed as a candidate on a flyer. Photo / Mark Mitchell

However, party tickets are a double-edged sword in that some people worry they allow central government to pull the strings at a local government level.

This is especially the case at the moment because the Government has a strong centralisation agenda between Three Waters reforms, getting rid of District Health Boards, incoming changes to resource management, and a review of local government.

Then again, some people might like the extra layer of accountability a party offers.

For example, the local Green Party issued a "please explain" when Free, who ran on the party's ticket, voted against a proposal to triple the cycleway budget.

The two parties have also endorsed mayoral candidates - the Greens have gone with former Green Party chief of staff Tory Whanau and Labour has gone with Rongotai MP Paul Eagle.

The endorsement means they can take a more arm's length approach to the respective parties if they want, rather than formally being on the ticket like Lester was.

Whether they could rely on the support of party ticket councillors if they were to be elected is another story.

Certainly, Green Party candidates have been more vocal in their support for Whanau, but Labour candidates have been notably quieter on Eagle.

Wellington is a political town and there will be plenty of local election races around the country where central government parties are not involved and no one is running on a ticket.

The real antidote to minority mayors is having the ability to build relationships, find common ground, and be willing to compromise.