Brian Rudman: Don't underestimate latest contender for Super City mayoralty

Andrew Williams. Photo / Paul Estcourt

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It doesn't pay to write off the newest Super City mayoral contender, Andrew Williams, as a make-up-the-numbers maverick.

There are those who did so when he ran for the North Shore mayoralty in 2007 and are still hiding their blushes.

On that occasion, under-rated Councillor Williams blew off the three other challengers to three-term incumbent George Wood and handily beat the mayor himself, 20,718 votes to 18,791.

Outside North Shore City he's mainly known for his nocturnal activities, late-night emails to a snoozing Prime Minister, and an emergency call of nature against a palm tree, witnessed by a "shocked" stalker from my noble trade. But, locally at least, he has electability.

Of his two main rivals, it's likely Auckland City Mayor John Banks had the more depressing weekend at news of a third credible candidate.

In the May 2010 UMR mayoral poll, the only glimmer of good news for Mr Banks had been that a majority of North Shore voters preferred him to the other then declared candidate, Manukau Mayor Len Brown.

It was only a narrow lead, 45 per cent to 41 per cent, but at least it was a lead. In the rest of the region, Len Brown was well ahead - in Manukau, by a huge 66 per cent to 25, and even in Auckland City, by 48 per cent to 39.

Of course, Mr Williams' entry into the race won't have cheered Mr Brown much either. If these two have had one thing in common that separates them from Mr Banks, it's been their opposition to the creation of a Super City and, in particular, a shared criticism of the loss of democracy they perceived in the new structures.

If anything, Mr Williams has been the more strident and vehement of the two. This can only be bad news for Mr Brown. The UMR poll had 63 per cent of those opposing the Super City concept supporting him, compared to just 19 per cent for Mr Banks.

That poll didn't check the level of support for and against the Super City concept, but the Herald-DigiPoll survey conducted at the same time did, showing only 32.8 per cent thought a Super City would be a better place to live in, while 48.5 per cent did not.

Even more emphatically, 52.7 per cent said they would be personally worse off under the new order, compared to just 31.2 per cent who said they would do better.

This is a fruitful ground of discontent that Mr Brown will now have to share.

For central government it's something of a nightmare. While both Mr Banks and Mr Brown in recent weeks have been biting their tongues and trying to keep relations with the government civil, Mr Williams thrives on winding Wellington up.

If he's not messaging Mr Key at 3am, he's using the Official Information Act to dig out the embarrassing details of Local Government Minister Rodney Hide's "official" trips to London and North America.

He has also campaigned loudly on behalf of a better deal for victims of leaky homes, alleging the Government stood to gain $2 billion from house repairs.

Like his two main rivals, eccentricity is part of Mr Williams' make-up.

Around Easter this year, at the height of the furore over his peeing incident, he fired off an email to two of his persecutors saying, "Two blokes got crucified this week ... and both will most certainly rise from the dead to come back to haunt a few people".

A couple of months later, Mr Brown, under pressure because of his expense claims, declared he was "under extraordinary scrutiny and maybe Jesus Christ was the only one to withstand that and come out completely pure".

There was much simulated shock from opponents after both comments, but they were soon forgotten. As Mr Williams argued on Saturday, we like a touch of eccentricity in our mayors.

But there are limits, and second-tier candidate Simon Prast surely voted himself out of contention with his admission yesterday that he had used the drug P and thought it should be decriminalised. I doubt many P users vote.

The question now is, will the North Shore Mayor's declaration tempt others into the fray.

With two of the three heavyweight contenders strong opponents of the reforms, it is hard to imagine that the businessmen who crusaded for the Super City model will be willing to sit back, fingers crossed, hoping their self-appointed champion, Mr Banks, will somehow make it.