Twelve candidates – including at least one actual clown – have put up their hands for the worst job in local politics.
As the clock struck noon on Friday, August 1, the candidate nominations closed for the Wellington mayoral race. The capital entered a new era. The transition of power has begun. By October 11 (or October 16 if it’s a really close race), the capital will have a new overlord. A new man or woman will seize the chains of power – and with it, the ability to grant the key to the city to any cat they choose.
There are 12 candidates in the race, ranging from very serious to not serious at all. This is my rough attempt to sort them into tiers.
Serious candidates
Andrew Little
You know him, you love him (or more realistically, have no particularly strong feelings about him)… It’s Andrew Little. The former Labour Party leader and senior cabinet minister under the Ardern government is by far the most credible and experienced candidate in the race. He has left-wing bona fides but a conservative temperament. He’s unlikely to propose any game-changing reforms, but he’s a steady hand who promises stability. He’s announced policies to introduce a weekly cap on bus and train fares, committed to funding community facilities, and proposed some boring-but-sensible rules to make council decisions more transparent.
Alex Baker
Pitches himself as a Green-aligned candidate with a free-market approach to housing policy and business regulation. A former director of sustainability at Kāinga Ora and a chartered accountant at KPMG, he has solid back-room experience, but this is his first time seeking public office. He’s pushing a switch to land value rates and cuts to commercial rates. He wants more bike lanes and bus lanes, further reforms to encourage high-density housing development, and an overall focus on growing the city’s population.
Diane Calvert
A third-term city councillor, Diane Calvert entered the race after Ray Chung’s campaign self-destructed, and immediately became the most credible candidate on the centre-right. She typically takes fiscally conservative stances and is a fan of more extensive community consultation on most council decisions. She has generally opposed bike lanes and the Golden Mile, and supported community projects in her Wharangi/Onslow-Western ward, such as the Khandallah Pool and Karori Event Centre. Her campaign policies so far are based around a “back-to-basics” approach, with lower council expenditure, more regional collaboration with other councils, and a focus on suburban voices.
Karl Tiefenbacher
The founder of the Kaffe Eis ice cream chain and former banker has run twice unsuccessfully in Pukehīnau/Lambton ward. This year, he’s seeking the mayoralty as well as running in Motukairangi/Eastern ward, which should be more receptive to his centre-right views. He’s become a regular attendee at council meetings, and his opinion pieces on Scoop show a good grasp of council functions (which in this race is saying a lot). He’s campaigning on reduced spending, cutting cycleways, and reforms to encourage faster housing consents and to incentivise the growth of the tech sector.
Unserious candidates (who think they’re serious)
Ray Chung
A few months ago, Ray Chung was the highest-polling candidate. Then his campaign blew up with the emergence of tawdry emails he’d written about the mayor, which he repeated in live radio interviews. He handled the backlash ineptly and candidates started fleeing his ticket so fast that Independent Together became Independent Not Together.
He’s campaigning on zero rates increases but has not provided any numbers to show how he would do that.
See also:
Ray Chung has never been fit for office
A play-by-play of Ray Chung’s train wreck interview with Sean Plunket
Ray Chung gets a woman to apologise for him
Inside Ray Chung’s unruly, incomprehensible campaign rally
Rob Goulden
Goulden was a Wellington City Councillor for four terms from 1998-2010. According to reporting by Stuff in 2009, he was accused of being “too combative, too aggressive, too intimidating” and was eventually trespassed from the council offices. Then mayor Kerry Prendergast said councillors were concerned by “his increasingly erratic behaviour and his mood swings” and “[Some of the] women staff will not meet with him one-to-one.” Then-councillor John Morrison, a former political ally, said he was “unfit for public office”. Goulden is running on a fiscally conservative platform, but no one is paying much attention to him.
Kelvin Hastie
Came a distant sixth in the 2022 mayoral election and is running again despite doing little to grow his profile in the intervening years. Describes himself as a “predator-free hero” and “community champion“. Has promoted some ambitious but questionable policies, including a six-lane tunnel underneath the CBD, a roof on Sky Stadium, and selling the council’s social housing to first home buyers.
Joan Shi
Previously ran in the Pukehīnau/Lambton ward byelection, during which she seemed well-intentioned but didn’t have a particularly strong grasp of the issues. Says she wants to fix the pipes, cut rates, and make public transport cheaper.
Donald “Newt” McDonald
Don McDonald on New Zealand Today (Credit: @guywilliamsguy)
A beloved figure on local Facebook groups and a star guest on Guy Williams’ New Zealand Today podcast. McDonald has some big ideas for how to fix the city. Unfortunately, most people struggle to understand what he is trying to say.
Unserious candidates (who know they’re unserious)
William Pennywize (Pennywize the Rewilding Clown)
William Pennywize (left) and Josh Harford (right)
Wants to turn the Basin Reserve into a swamp, repopulate the Golden Mile with moa, and use genetically enhanced tuna as the foundation for a new public transport network.
Josh Harford (Aotearoa New Zealand Silly Hat Party)
Campaigning on subsidised pizza delivery, publicly accessible cows, a lazy river on Courtenay Place, anti-rain dances to keep the sky sunny, a legally enforced no-hat-no-play policy, and mandatory optimism.
Scott Caldwell
Founder of the Scoot Foundation, which, depending on who you ask, is either a shadowy global cabal of Yimbys whose power and influence rivals the Atlas Network, or a Twitter account that he runs. He’s a spokesperson for the Coalition for More Homes and is a genuine expert on housing density and infrastructure. There’s just one problem: he lives in Auckland, and according to The Spinoff’s sources, has only been to Wellington once.