Parker in the lead

UMR have just released a poll on the Christchurch Mayoralty.

• Bob Parker 55% (+27%)
• Jim Anderton 41% (-19%)
• 88% say Parker has handled earthquake well
• 55% have positive impression of Parker (+20%)
• 44% have positive impression of Anderton (-19%)

What I find interesting is not that Bob Parker has gone up, but that Anderton has had a 19% drop in his favourability. That should be unaffected.

I think two things have contributed to it. The first is his statement that he could do Mayor and MP standing on his head came back to haunt him. And the second is his snide comments about Parker. He couldn’t bring himself to say anything genuinely nice about the job Parker did, so he did a veiled insult – “Bob is very good at appearing on television” type statements. It looked (and was) cheap.

The only bad thing about the poll is it means we probably keep Jim as an MP for another year!