Can the Shadbolt-factor come undone?

Those who’ve stood against Sir Tim know they’re not going to beat him on personality, says Evan Harding .So how can he lose?

Since 1993 the country’s longest running and best recognised firebrand mayor Sir Tim Shadbolt has been elected to Invercargill’s office eight times.

The 72-year-old 1960s radicalturned-concrete contractor-turnedpolitician whose early years are remembered for starring in a 1990s cheese ad where he repeated, ‘‘I don’t care where as long as I’m mayor’’ and who more recently sashayed across our screens on Dancing with the Stars, is powering towards another mayoralty race in October.

This year’s race has some controversy, though, thanks to his deputy, Rebecca Amundsen, throwing her hat in the ring (‘‘It seems while I am fighting the good fight, she is at home plotting,’’ he said this week).

So the Sunday Star-Times asked: how hard is it to campaign against the celebrity incumbent?

‘‘They wanted someone who stands up and says a few words and is a populist figure, and that’s really hard to break down,’’ broadcaster and businessman Tom Conroy said of his losing 2016 bid against Shadbolt.

‘‘It’s the history, it’s all the experiences he has endured over the years. Everyone has a connection with one of those things he has done.’’

Neil Boniface was on the Invercargill City Council with Shadbolt for 20 years, 12 of those as his deputy – but said he’d never challenge for the top job.

‘‘I didn’t have the X factor . . . You aren’t going to beat Tim on personality. You are going to have to beat him on policies and