Local body count

It’s local-body election time. Curb your enthusiasm. Dim-Post reports of the Wellington local body candidates that current mayor Kerry Prendergast:

is coy about her record of relaxing earthquake regulations and demolishing historic buildings to construct more inner city apartments.

In Hamilton, incumbent Bob Simcock is running on his record too. This consists of encouraging all retailers to abandon the CBD for the faraway The Base; gaily decorating long stretches of Victoria and Collingwood Streets with colourful “For Lease” signs; and wasting millions on applying lipstick to the pig that is Garden Place. 

(I was in the city this morning, first to visit the art gallery for this year’s Bold Horizon National Contemporary Art Award; and second to be blinded by science – literally. Three hours later I can see OK but still have a Mrkusich imprinted on each retina. If you have a copy of last year’s beautiful book on Mrkusich from AUP, as everyone should, the one I am wearing is plate 59, Painting Dark III, 1974. Though sometimes it’s plate 70, Monochrome Orange, 1979.)

Meanwhile, Aucklanders are being entertained by Bonnie Banks et al. Those with long memories will recall Sir Dove-Myer Robinson standing on a chair to prove his fitness for the mayoral office (maybe 1980, when he was 79). That’s Robbie pictured above, walking to work, proving that Auckland’s local-body politicians have always been mad.

Fundy Post is backing Mike Lee:

I once left a welcoming speech he was giving at a Labour Party conference in Takapuna, walked the length of Hurstmere Road and back, returned to the Bruce Mason Centre and found he was still talking.

But none of the above, not even North Shore’s Andrew Williams nor Christchurch’s Jim Anderton, is a match for this guy. His name is Phil Davidson and he is the Republican candidate for treasurer in Stark County, Ohio. The Atlantic calls his performance “undoubtedly the least impressive stump speech in America’s 234 year history”. Who knows. But it is a lulu.

Monitor: The LiberalCurmudgeon