Minto for Mayor

The HoS reports:

Veteran activist John Minto is asking his political party to approve a run for mayor of Auckland. The trade unionist and teacher said Mayor Len Brown had disappointed him.

“What has Len Brown done which is different to what John Banks would have done if he were in? You struggle to find many significant things.”

Sources said the Mana Party was initially keen on the idea to dispel perceptions that the party was solely about its leader, Hone Harawira. “If I did run it would be as an official Mana candidate,” Minto said ahead of this weekend’s Mana Party AGM in Tokoroa. “Mana’s considering it.”

Minto said Brown had failed Auckland’s poor. “The business community and people on high incomes in Auckland are very happy with Len Brown, so I don’t know whether they’ll bother putting up a candidate,” Minto told the Herald on Sunday.

“He is a corporate candidate, effectively.”

It will be interesting to see how many votes Minto gets, if he does run. He can’t and won’t win of course, but he may help split the vote.

In another story it is revealed that the Council under Len has spent $60 million on communications in the last two years including 143 comms and PR staff!

I’m not sure if this includes the six spin doctors directly working for Len.