High cost running for mayor of city
Paula Southgate has acknowledged the increasingly costly business of running for public office after she racked up $59,042.04 in expenses in her successful bid to be Hamilton city mayor.
Southgate spent the most of any of the mayoral candidates in the Hamilton City Council elections in October, narrowly beating Andrew King, who spent $53,937.65 after the Council released its electoral expenses and donations for each candidate.
‘‘It’s expensive if you’re going to take it seriously,’’ she said.
‘‘I do feel for people, especially at the mayoral level when you are competing against big resources and I knew I was competing against Andrew [King] who was able to fund a fairly big campaign. I knew that if I was going to take it seriously, I needed to do my best and that was my approach.’’
Having lost by a handful of votes in the previous election after spending a large amount of money, Southgate said she wanted to do the best she could and made a budget where she could achieve that without having a negative impact on her family.
‘‘Having come so close and invested so much personally, I had to give it as big a budget as I possibly could do.’’
The total she spent was slightly over that budget.
Expenses such as signage for cars, corflute signage and social media quickly added up, she said.
‘‘For an entry level person, it’s hard. You’ve got to do flyers, you’ve got to do billboards, your car and before you know it, you’ve spent $7000 without blinking. It’s got to change in my view.’’
She estimated that over the past 18 years, she has spent close to $50,000 of her own money on her political career.
Southgate declared $13,246 in donation services and received $8122.70 in online donations on the website Donor Box as well as smaller donations. The average donation made using the online service was $140, and she received 58 donations.
Southgate said she never planned to target large donors during the election, instead relying on lots of small donations.
Former mayor Andrew King declared no donations, but was the highest spending non-successful candidate, spending $53,937.65. This included $29,023 in pamphlet deliveries, $10,856 in catering, online advertising and signage materials and $14,057 in radio and print advertising.
Angela O’Leary received donations totalling $36,200 from five people. These included a $2000 cash donation from Craig Fraser. Yeoman Property Group developer Andrew Yeoman donated $1800 in signage costs.
Robin Porter, chief executive of construction equipment supplier Porter Group and Modern Transport Engineers founder Robin Ratcliffe each donated
$10,000.
Hamilton businessman Tom Andrews also donated $10,000 in cash and $2400 in signage.
O’Leary’s campaign expenses totalled
$41,354. James Casson received a $3000 donation from wife Debbie for advertising material and spent $4530.95 on his campaign.
Jack Gielen had an empty ledger for both donations and expenses while Lisa Lewis had two donations totalling $3700.
Louise Hutt received $37,135 in the form of services rendered for billboards and spent $12,229 in her unsuccessful bid.
Mike West received one donation of $3000 from Auckland company CJ Dilligas. He spent $9024 on his mayoral campaign.
Almost all of the successful council candidates had no donations to declare with only Keshree Naidoo-Rauf declaring $1276.51 gathered from a fundraiser and spent $9206.94 on her campaign. Mark Bunting declared $4698 in
spending. Margaret Forsyth spent
$7869.61 in spending. Ryan Hamilton spent $8849.75 to retain his seat at Council, Rob Pascoe spent $9973.37 on his
campaign, Maxine van Oosten spent $6541.46.
Martin Gallagher spent $15,688.97, David Macpherson spent $3281.47, deputy mayor Geoff Taylor’s expenses totalled $15,790.25, Sarah Thomson spent $5656.54 and Ewan Wilson spent $15,508.76.
Former councillor Garry Mallett was the highest spending unsuccessful candidate, spending $24,502.30.