Lester announces for Mayoralty

The Dom Post reports:

Wellington’s mayoral team may be side-by-side for now, but they’ll come head to-head in next year’s local body elections. 

Deputy mayor Justin Lester has broken his poker face and announced he will stand for the mayoralty in the October elections. 

Lester, who will run on a Labour ticket, will be trying to oust his boss, mayor Celia Wade-Brown.

He said the pair had been discussing the issue for more than a year and that there would be no conflict in him remaining deputy mayor. 

“It’s important that one of us gets elected rather than someone else who doesn’t have a similar vision for the city,” he said.

“I’ll be focused on my campaign and she will be focused on hers. I won’t be criticising her.”

Wellington City has a single-transferable vote system, which allows voters to rank their preferences rather than vote for one person.

Lester and Wade-Brown said they would give each other their number two votes.

So will Lester have any policies that differ from Wade-Brown?

I look forward to all mayoral candidates spelling out their policies, and especially what they will do to bring spending under control.