So Wellington re-elected Kerry Prendergast. She is a virulently hated mayor; so much so, in fact, that I had a period where I was very worried that there was some nasty misogyny at the basis of it. After confiding these doubts to others I’ve been reconvinced that, no, it’s not that we hate women or hold them to higher standards, it really is because of what she has done.
She is also, however, a mightily well-supported mayor. In the elections just completed, she doubled her nearest rival’s vote count.
This suggests two things. First, that being so hated and so well-supported at the same time means she has been a very divisive figure in Wellington. And second, that the mayoral election suffered from the lack of a clear opposition figure around which the Kerry-haters could comfortably rally. She was head and shoulders and torso above everyone else in terms of profile, except for the disturbing spectre of wacky typo-guy John McGrath. The Single Transferable Vote system should have made it impossible for splitting the vote to be a factor, so it can only be lack of a candidate who actually appeals to the anti-Kerry crowd; either that or the anti-Kerry crowd really is massively outnumbered. I shudder at the thought of that.
I note with disapproval that Ms Prendergast wants to get rid of STV.
In any case, I blundered and didn’t end up voting. Remembering too late that my electoral roll address was still lodged as Scotland; I didn’t get that sorted out fast enough. Stink.
New Zealand’s mayors do make me shake my head. John Banks? Michael Laws? We’re doing it to ourselves.
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I am intrigued by the prospect of an England-Argentina final in the Rugby World Cup. Malc and I have been discussing with appalled fascination how the Brit red-top press will be eager to revive the spirit of the Falklands… Argentina need to make it through South Africa to get there, though, and that won’t be an easy task.
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And I am marking. I have lots and lots of marking. Don’t talk to me, I’m marking. Marking now. Marking.
9 thoughts on “Return of the Prendergast”
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“lack of a candidate who actually appeals to the anti-Kerry crowd”
And the fact that there is more than one “anti-Kerry crowd”, and those factions aren’t necessarily going to vote for the same opponents. For instance, I’ve obviously been opposed to her policies on the bypass and other transport issues, as well as her cynical attempt to “evict” the homeless from a public park and her centre-right leanings in general. On the other hand, I like the way the waterfront is going and I don’t think that property development is inherently evil (without property developers, there would be no city). It left me unable to vote for some green and leftish candidates, because despite their pro-public transport policies, there’s a streak of anti-urbanism there that turns me off.
The next big test will be the response to the report on the Ngauranga to Airport Study. Kerry’s “carbon neutral” rhetoric deserves to come under powerful scrutiny if she promotes a “bigger roads” option.
Yeah, I imagine you’re dead on. There is such a body of anti-Kerry sentiment, it disguises the fact that they represent variable constituencies; and then there are considered voters who actually pay attention to a candidate’s policy in toto; and so on.
I can’t help but feel that if Georgina Beyer had made a concerted run for it, she would have had many factions rally to her cause, simply because she is both high-profile and not-Kerry.
I noted that in Auckland there was still commentary about “splitting the [left-wing] vote”, even though AK also has STV – so I expect voters are still thinking within the old system, and quite possibly casting “strategic” votes according to the wrong strategy (rather like the way the British army used to fight the last war it won rather than the war it was in).
My apathy was expressed by voting in the Wellington elections, not the Auckland one. Thus I feel a little guilty that Banks got in, but I assuage that by remembering that my vote didn’t stop Prendergast getting in either.
Just out of interest, who would you have preferred?
John McGrath of course!
I want John McGrath as my war daddy.
Tom: Pepperell, I guess. That’s who I’d have voted for if I hadn’t thoroughly embarrassed myself by not voting. Not that I expect him to have won, either. So, on reflection, my answer must be “don’t know”.
I voted BP #1, and KP #2. So not only did I help put the dreaded Kerry in for a 3rd term, I failed to guess who her closest opponent might be.
Sorry, Wellington — it’s all my fault.
John McGrath appeared to be like Kerry Prendergast, just more so. I guess we should be pleased that the overall rightwards lurch in these local body elections didn’t extend to voting that particularly insensitive, shallow, money-grubbing capitalist as Wellington’s next mayor.
So, as you can probably tell, he didn’t get any of my preference votes…
It is Oct 19th here and I received my voting papers today. Not that I consider myself remotely qualified to vote in the Upper Hutt council elections…but I certainly hope my general election papers don’t take so long to get here…did they sent them via Swaziland or something?