The latest Listener has devoted five pages to the forthcoming Nelson mayoral election.
Four and a half are devoted to former Green Party candidate Matt Lawry, a two term Councillor. They include a full page photo, another half page photo of him with his family and a further half page photo with Green Party MPs.
His principal opponent, Nick Smith is given a mere half a page.
Lawry it seemed, has had a rather speckled background as a journo for diverse radio and print outlets, none seemingly lasting long. It appears from the article his last employment was a decade back since when he has presumably existed from his Councillor’s fees.
In bold boxed type is his quote:
“When it comes to the mayoralty I think it’s really important that whoever has that job isn’t a member of a political party.”
I searched in vain for any explanation from him in the article as to why this is really important.
Smith, unsurprisingly given his engineering doctorate, played a key role as a senior Cabinet Minister in the rebuilds following the Christchurch and Kaikoura earthquakes.
In the year since his retirement he’s been involved in creating a windfarm. It will be interesting to watch the outcome of this election between a talker and a doer.