Lower Hutt elections

I’ve been told that The Labour Party has leaned heavily on it’s members to not run in Lower Hutt, except for the anointed candidates in each ward. But they are all (bar one) running as Independents, even though they caucus together and Councillors have been instructed on how to vote by the Labour Party.

It seems their plan is to raise the number of Labour/Green affiliated councillors from their current 5 to 8 so that they have a majority on Council and then use the Council to undermine Chris Bishop. They are desperate to stop him winning Hutt South, and see the Council as a pawn in that.

The sensible centre and centre right candidates in Lower Hutt are:

• Northern – Gwen McDonald and Leigh Sutton
• Central – David Bassett and Simon Edwards
• Harbour – Brady Dyer and Mike Fisher
• Wainuiomata – Margaret Willard
• Western – Chris Milne, Max Shierlaw

So if you want to stop Labour turning the Hutt Council into a pawn, vote for truly independent candidates above. The above are not the only good ones, but are safe ones.