Hartley squeaks home in Northcote battle

By THERESA GARNER

The meter expired on the parliamentary career of Ian Revell when Labour's Ann Hartley won his Northcote seat.

Her slim 290-vote victory ended both Mr Revell's nine-year stint as MP and National's stranglehold on the North Shore electorates.

Election night was tense in both camps, in venues just metres apart in Onewa Rd.

A chair in the corner of the Northcote College Hall was reserved for "Ann Hartley, Labour MP for Northcote." However, with the lead see-sawing from polling booth to polling booth, it was well after 1 am on Sunday before she could rightly sit in it.

In the end, though, it was third-time lucky for the former North Shore Mayor, who has been trying to win the seat from Mr Revell since 1993.

Mr Revell's personal vote dropped from 41 per cent in 1996 to 31 per cent. He seems to have suffered an electorate backlash following an episode in which he threatened the job of a police superintendent over a parking fine. He subsequently resigned as Deputy Speaker.

Yesterday, Mr Revell said his defeat was not a surprise considering the Herald's publication of an article last week containing Mrs Hartley's call for tactical voting by Alliance supporters. Mr Revell said it was irresponsible to publish the "the Hartley line of 'gang up and get Revell'."

"We were expecting a neck and neck race ... I didn't think it was very fair."

Yet despite her appeal, Mrs Hartley watched in dismay as support for popular Alliance list MP Grant Gillon split the anti-National vote.

Mr Gillon had claimed right until the end that he could take the seat, and indeed gave his rivals a run for their money.

While Mrs Hartley's own vote was down from 9216 in 1996 to 9044, Mr Gillon's was up from 3923 to 5918.

Reflecting the swing to the centre-left, the pairing won 53.42 per cent of the electorate vote, compared with their combined total of 39.11 per cent in 1996.

Mr Revell chose not to seek a place on National's list, but Mr Gillon will take his place in the new Parliament from the Alliance list.