Aspirants taken at face value

CURRENT Geelong Mayor John Mitchell and contender Keith Fagg are the most recognisable of the mayoral candidates, according to a Geelong Advertiser street poll.

The Addy showed photos of the candidates to 20 people around the city yesterday, asking them to name the candidates.

Whittington resident P e t e r Hughes was among some of those surveyed who was given a photo of the candidates, but could not name them.

But both Cr Mitchell and Mr Fagg were correctly named by 13 of the 20 respondents.

Socialist Alliance candidate Sue Bull and Chamber of Commerce chief executive Bernadette Uzelac had the next highest profile, followed by Stephanie Asher.

Candidate Frank Rozpara failed to get any recognition, while Ocean Grove’s Graeme Robin got one ‘vote’.

Without a photo, mystery candidate John Smith was a non-starter — although one man, who was part of a group of three talking to the Geelong Advertiser and was from Tasmania, said he had seen a poster for Mr Smith in East Geelong.

There is a sign on the Bellarine Highway at Leopold which reads: Please help John Smith if you can.

BAY- FM this week said it was going to unveil Mr Smith in an exclusive interview . . . on radio.

Needless to say Mr Smith remained unrevealed.

In fact Mr Smith has spoken to the Geelong Advertiser at least six times since the campaign started, and we can reveal that he lives in Leopold.