Campaign Diary: 12 days to go

Peters gets a chance to look on bright side

At last some good(?) news for Winston Peters. His former deputy Tau Henare is struggling badly in Te Tai Tokerau. A Marae-DigiPoll puts Labour's Dover Samuels on 40 per cent support, and Mr Henare on 19.6 - just a whisker ahead of New Zealand First's Anaru George on 19.5 per cent. If Mr Peters is feeling the pressure from having one candidate attacking his integrity, another facing a court case for allegedly filing false GST returns and his own Tauranga seat on a knife edge, he isn't showing it. He has unveiled billboards "morphing" the features of Jenny Shipley and Helen Clark into a composite picture, with the words "Even their policies are the same".

Party animals

Labour and National have spent the weekend mulling whether to change tack from their risk-free campaign strategy to date. Whatever they decide, Helen Clark and Jenny Shipley will keep plugging hard for the list vote, which trails their relatively high electorate support. Act and the Alliance have (successfully) pitched for the party vote and their party billboards are often more prominent and numerous than those for local candidates.

WHAT THEY SAID

* "I have resigned, but I now find I can't resign." - NZ First candidate Suzanne Bruce allows a strict reading of the Electoral Act to leave her in limbo.

* "Losing in Tauranga would go a long way to making him look weak enough to lose his leadership." Robyn McDonald achieves the rare campaign contortion of backing the party while working to oust leader Winston Peters.

WHERE THEY'LL BE

* Winston Peters is in Tau-territory, with three public meetings in Northland; Jim Anderton in Christchurch and Palmerston North; Jenny Shipley in Oamaru and Dunedin; and Helen Clark on the North Shore. Richard Prebble does two TV slots and campaigns in Auckland.

- compiled by deputy political editor Vernon Small