Mayoral poll has Banks and Brown equal

The race to be the Super City's first mayor is tight, with a poll commissioned by Auckland City's John Banks showing him and Manukau Mayor Len Brown neck-and-neck on 50 per cent support among decided voters.

The poll shows Mr Banks leading a wide field of candidates. However, most of them will not be standing.

When the pollsters asked for a preference between him and Mr Brown - the only declared contenders - the lead disappeared.

About 15 per cent of respondents were undecided.

The poll of 1200 Aucklanders over five days last week was done for Mr Banks by Curia Research. This company is owned by a political activist with National Party links, David Farrar.

The results are at odds with a poll of 482 Aucklanders conducted last December for Mr Brown by UMR Research, long-time pollsters for the Labour Party. That head-to-head poll had Mr Brown on 42 per cent and Mr Banks on 31.

When the Curia poll asked Aucklanders who they would most like to be mayor, Mr Banks led on 42.5 per cent and Mr Brown was second with 38.1 per cent.

Next were Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey (7.2 per cent), businessman Sir Stephen Tindall (4.8), broadcaster Paul Holmes (1.4), Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee (1.3), Auckland Chamber of Commerce chief executive Michael Barnett (1.3) and North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams (0.4). Unnamed others got 3.2 per cent support.

Mr Banks said the results were heartening, but showed the October contest would be a close and hard-fought battle.

"I am very happy with that because I believe Aucklanders deserve a genuine contest of ideas and experience," he said.

A spokesman for Mr Brown said the polls were volatile and showed it was going to be an interesting race over the next eight months.

He said that clearly Mr Banks had a higher name recognition and Mr Brown was looking to provide a rigorous challenge.

The poll has a margin of error of 2.9 per cent.