The odd man out is stuck in the middle
Reg Newell’s lack of political ambition makes him the odd man out in his family.
In his garage each morning he navigates 30 election placards bearing the beaming faces of his wife Heather and 18-year-old son Michael to reach his car.
Reg is the only member of his household not standing for Upper Hutt City Council.
Despite, by his own admission, fitting the profile of a local body politician, the lawyer and part-time historian says he has enough on his plate.
‘‘Yes, I’m an older, white man. I deal with enough problems without having to take them on a macro level.’’
While he prefers to keep out of politics, daily conversations about his wife and son are unavoidable.
The lawn in front of his legal practice near Upper Hutt’s CBD is planted with the same placards that occupy his garage.
Despite harbouring no desire to sit on the council, the ‘‘fairly centrist’’ Reg is a keen observer of politics. No fewer than half a dozen portraits of Michael Joseph ‘‘Mickey’’ Savage hang in the reception of his office – a nod to its location on Savage Cres and in admiration of the architect of New Zealand’s welfare state.
‘‘I take my hat off to people who do public service.’’
With Heather having been a councillor between 1989 and 2010 – Michael was born while she was serving – he had seen how things had changed and said the fact teenagers and women could run for council without anyone batting an eyelid showed how far things had come.
He recalled accompanying Heather to a meeting following her first nomination and being embarrassed when people assumed it was he who was running.
While his family’s two candidates did not agree on everything, Reg said the atmosphere in the Newell household was relatively harmonious.
With 10 votes for councillors up his sleeve, he was happy he didn’t have to pick between his wife and son.
‘‘I can quite comfortably vote without anything weighing on my conscience.’’