The Northern Ward could be one of the more interesting contests come October with the real likelihood of at least one new councillor from the area. The ward covers some of the more affluent areas of the City along with pockets of working class family heartland. It begins at Newlands, covers Johnsonville, Woodridge, Churton Park, Grenada and all of Tawa. The three incumbents aren’t what you would call particularly inspiring or exciting and the all female line up is something of an anomaly given the old-white-male-boys-club reputation of areas like Tawa and Johnsonville (see: Tawa Community Board). On top of this, the once bright young hope of the area, Hayley Wain, has twice been rated as “hopeless” by the Wellingtonian. Ouch.
Wain is in her second term and has a difficult choice to make. She is young and has only graduated from university in the last year and word has it that she is actively looking for work and will only stand if she can’t find a job. After two terms it would make sense for Wain to go out and find work with a view to possibly returning to Council in the future. However, as a Councillor she has been accustomed to earning in excess on $80k a year – and not many grads would dream of earning that sort of money in their first job which might make the job hunt that bit more difficult. But her dithering and unwillingness to commit to standing along with the constant bagging she has had in the media means she will be a target for any prospective candidate. There is another school of thought which says that her high media profile (although terribly negative) will actually work for her electorally. More people will have heard of her come election day than anyone else, and there is a chance they will have forgotten exactly why. I’m skeptical.
Ngaire Best has been on the receiving end of similar criticism from the Wellingtonian as Wain, however, she is probably in the strongest position in terms of re-election of all three incumbents. Best was first elected in 2001 then lost in 2004 after joining the ill-fated and misguided right wing 1,2,3 for North STV campaign, before returning as an independent in 2007. Best’s strength is that she is the sole Councillor based in Tawa, and if there is one thing that sets the once dry suburb apart is that it is highly parochial and will always vote for their own.
The last and by all means the least incumbent is Helene Ritchie. The erratic and eccentric Ritchie has been on the City Council since before I was born and in recent times has heavily relied on the reputation she established in her Labour party hey day of the 80s and 90s. She also hasn’t lived in the Northern Ward for some time and is largely invisible across the electorate these days. In 2007 she just scraped through. Ritchie is also looking very vulnerable in 2010.
The exciting feature of this race is that a decent new candidate has already put their hand up. Wellington businessman, Justin Lester, has announced his candidacy and will likely appeal to the Ward given his mixture of commercial credibility, having been a director at Jones Lang LaSalle and an owner of everyones favourite salad bar, Kapai, along with his family friendly credentials. Lester will definitely be one to watch if he can run a good campaign.
Word also has it that Vodafone’s chief lobbyist, Roger Ellis, will run again having unsuccessfully stood in 2007. Ellis has built a local profile on transport issues in Churton Park but he struggled to pull votes from anywhere outside his little legoland hamlet. In 2007 he was out-campaigned by both Wain and Best and was beaten for name recognition by Ritchie which led to a disappointing mid-table finish, if he has learnt from that experience he could be competitive, but could be squeezed out by Lester if he isn’t careful.
Most locals expect the usual suspects to stand yet again, such as renowned committee spakfillas like Jim Candiliotis and former councillor, Ian Hutchings. Neither would be expected to get very far, especially if Lester and Ellis run strong campaigns and it’s hard to see either keeping up with the pace of a modern campaign.
In any event, it would not be a surprise if the North used 2010 to restore some dignity to its politics by replacing some of the more maligned community representatives in Wellington.
WCC Watch 