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Online electoral campaigning can work well in tandem with traditional campaign methods, a mayoral candidate tells CHRIS DANIELS.

Take a look through the booklet that came with your local body election voting papers.

The usual crowd are there - the communist, the anti-abortionist, the earnest, dull and the mad. But at the end of their 150-word statements explaining why you must vote for them, something new is appearing: a website address.

Slowly but surely, candidates are turning to the internet to spread their message.

But the popularity of a campaigning website is not universal. Each of the leading mayoral contenders in Auckland City has a website, but on the North Shore only one, Joel Cayford, has a personal site.

With JoelCayford.com and JoelCayford.co.nz, he is an enthusiastic supporter of using the internet to take his message to the voters.

None of his mayoral rivals has embraced the idea, preferring to rely on more traditional forms of campaigning - billboards, posters, leaflets and meetings.

His site is huge, with maps, photos, press releases, articles - the whole nine yards of local body politics.

Mr Cayford says he has not abandoned the old methods of leaflets and billboards, he just wants to add to them.

In fact, he uses the old methods to steer people towards his website.

"The main way I am driving traffic to the website is by promoting it on the leaflet that I put out, on the billboards and also on the candidate profiles that are put out with all the voting papers."

The information on his site, he says, is "of a much higher quality than you can put on a leaflet or a billboard". It allows people to go quickly to the topics they are interested in.

But how many potential voters will actually visit his site, and won't they just be his supporters anyway?

"You might be only talking about 1 or 2 per cent of people that are taking the trouble, but they are a very informed bunch," he says.

Since Mr Cayford "cold-codes" all the site himself, he does not spend much money on the internet. He thinks the cost of having a site professionally developed and maintained is a big reason so few local body candidates have an internet presence.

For most candidates, if it came down to whether to spend money on more leaflets or a website, the leaflets would probably win.

But the internet gives a special gift to the aspiring mayoral candidate - space. Mr Cayford says he uses his site to show people things he could never dream of including in a leaflet or a billboard.

"You might notice that my CV is there: people want to know, who is this bugger? They can look at that on my website.

"People have a look and it gives them a different picture, whereas in a leaflet you would never put down two or three pages of a CV.

"It would just take up too much space."

But using the internet as a political tool is more than just about attracting voters who come across a candidate's website, says Rebekah Holt, communications spokeswoman for Matt McCarten's Auckland City mayoral campaign.

She says employing the internet in addition to other, more traditional forms of campaigning, is vital - especially for journalists, who would otherwise ring her up, asking for statements and information from Mr McCarten.

"I was keen to use a website for what I knew it would be so good for.

"Journalists can download photos off it, I don't have to send them transparencies.

"A lot of journalists can go to the two sites and get what information they want without going through the media managers."

The voters count, too. As Ms Holt points out, around 70 per cent of those living in central Auckland are online, so a good campaign simply must have a website alongside the billboards, leaflets and public meetings.

"It's part of the whole picture ... especially when you are dealing with a highly urbanised citizenry."

Auckland's online billboards

Mayoral Candidates


Joel Cayford: North Shore City

Wes Taylor: Manukau City

John Banks: Auckland City

Matt McCarten: Auckland City

Christine Fletcher: Auckland City

Fran van Helmond: Auckland City

Tony Gibson: Auckland City

Metiria Turei: Auckland City

Walter Christie: Auckland City


Parties and Teams

Auckland Citizens and Ratepayers Now

City Vision party

Team Auckland group

The "A Team" group running for the North Shore City Council

The Team West group, which includes Mayor Bob Harvey and all running for the Waitakere City Council


Others

Huge list of internet homes of candidates from all over New Zealand

Business lobby group on Auckland transport

Election results progressively announced from about 2 pm onwards on Saturday, 13 October

Feature: Local body elections 2001