Editorial: All to play for nationally ... and locally

Mark Dawson, Editor of Wanganui Chronicle

PHEW. That was some curveball.

Totally out of left field (sorry ... right field), John Key announces he's quitting and eclipses TV pundit Hayley Holt's "bombshell" of the previous day that she is standing for the Green Party.

Suddenly the impregnable National fortress is looking a bit battered as three contenders line up for the prime minister's job.

Although a proven failure as leader, Bill English represents the safe pair of hands; Jonathan Coleman is selling that most marketable political product, "change", as though implying Key had been heading in the wrong direction.

No surprise that the ever-ambitious Judith Collins has seized her chance.

She has solid support on the hard right of the party and is probably still smarting from being briefly dumped from Cabinet by the Key-English axis. How much presiding over a rise in crime while Police Minister will affect her chances remains to be seen.

One wonders how the machinations at national level will play out locally in next year's election campaign.

Whanganui MP Chester Borrows has already shown Mr Key the way by announcing the end of his political career last week, and three-time Labour candidate Hamish McDouall is now ensconced as mayor.

After three rounds of Borrows v McDouall, two new gladiators must enter the arena, and John Key's departure means less certainty about the outcome.

Two weeks ago, Mr Borrows and National would have been odds-on favourites, now it is all to play for.

If 2016 was an interesting year in politics, 2017 is shaping up as even more intriguing.