NO SHOCK MAYORAL TILTS HAD NO IMPACT

CAN any of you reading this, name all the eight mayoral candidates in Saturday’s council poll?

Try asking your councillor the same question. The answer again will be “no” .

Despite wanting Mayor Tom Tate’s job, none of these candidates really reached out to the sitting councillors, which you would think you should do as a prospective leader, reach out to those you would be leading.

So many of this ’Magnificent Seven’ had no budget, no campaign manager, no strategy, no advertising, no media advisor who could put out releases or at least respond promptly to reporters’ email for their profile – not even a leaflet or a corflute on polling day.

They were effectively applying for a job where they were responsible for a $1.73 billion budget – your ratepayer money.

Since losing, a handful are playing the blame game, lining up the Bulletin and its reporters with conspiracy theories. The thing is, if you have no budget, campaign manager and so on you are always going to poll less than 10 per cent. No conspiracy there.

The low point was after posting on Facebook my story about Mayor Tom Tate’s wife Ruth sustaining a serious facial injury after a fall at a booth, one of the candidates replied: “Don’t give a shit about Tom Tate or his wife.”

The Coast deserves better than this. Some serious candidates suggest a $3000 deposit, a requirement that they campaign for at least six months, something to ensure there is quality of choice.

Would be good to remember names for the right reasons.