Mayor gearing up for a big fight

Mayor Tom Tate says he’s feeling “humbly buoyant” as he heads into the final week of the council election campaign, and reckons his main opponent Eddy Sarroff isn’t the toughest he’s faced in his 12-year political career.

Mr Tate is red-hot favourite to be re-elected for a fourth successive term as mayor of Queensland’s second-biggest city on Saturday.

He faces a field of eight candidates but the mayoralty is tipped to be a two-horse race between Mr Tate and Mr Sarroff, a former long-serving Broadbeach councillor and deputy mayor.

Speaking at the weekend, Mr Tate told the Bulletin he was “taking nothing for granted” as he hits the hustings for the last week of the campaign.

“Right now how do I feel? Humbly buoyant,” he said.

He said Mr Sarroff was “formidable” in 2012 when he stood for the mayoralty and lost to Mr Tate.

But despite Mr Sarroff’s high profile, Mr Tate said he believed his main opponent in the last campaign, Mona Hecke – who is this year standing as a councillor for Surfers Paradisebased Division 10 – was a tougher adversary.

“This one, I’m taking nothing for granted, but I’m a lot more comfortable,” he said.

“The difference is, Gold Coasters will see the action and the vision that’s happened in the last 12 years, and they see that what I say is delivered.”

Mr Tate said he expected to lose “a few” votes from people who believed he had been in office for too long.

“My rebuttal is, instead of getting four more years of vision and have-a-go spirit, are you just going to strike it out and pick somebody that hasn’t been around?” he said.

Mr Tate said his campaign spend this year would be about the same as in 2020 – “$55,000, plus or minus two (thousand)”.

“It’s value for money, especially when it comes out of my own pocket,” he said.

Mr Tate said the “loud minority” had told him he was going to “cop it” on polling day from voters opposed to lightrail and “overdevelopment” of suburbs such as Palm Beach.

“At the last election, some of my strongest booths were in the south,” he said.

“It’s the silent majority that comes out (in support). They give you a wink, a smile.”

The mayor would not rule out a fifth election tilt. “I take it one term at a time,” he said.

“The person who knows more than me when it’s the last term, it’s Ruth, my wife. If she says we’re going cruising, I’m going cruising.”