Looking back at the second graph in our cost per vote post, you’ll note the two successful candidates with the highest cost per vote were Paul Eagle and Simon Marsh.
At the other end of the scale, you’ve got well established councillors such as Stephanie Cook, Andy Foster and Ray Ahipene-Mercer, who spent only a handful of thousands each.
This simply shows how difficult it is for new challengers to build their name recognition to the point where people will vote for them.
One part of the problem is much easier it is for sitting councillors to get media attention than challengers. I can think of at least three local publications that did profiles of their sitting councillors during the campaign, but refused to profile their challengers. Because of that, the reality of the situation is if you want to get enough mind share that enough people will consider voting for you, you’re going to need to have established networks and a lot of money to spend raising your profile.
Of course, this is all a lot easier if you get $45K in not-so-anonymous donations, but that’s another story…
WCC Watch 