Palino tries his third mayoral bid
Two-time mayoral candidate John Palino is making a third bid for the Auckland mayoralty — this time from his home in the United States.
The restaurant and cafe owner has put in his nomination from his home in Orlando, Florida, but it’s unclear when he will return to Auckland to campaign.
After coming second behind Len Brown in 2013, Palino became a central figure in the sex scandal between Brown and Bevan Chuang, a council advisory board member who had a two-year affair with the mayor.
Palino met Brown’s former mistress for a late-night discussion in a Mission Bay carpark the night after the mayoral election and just two days before the affair was made public. Palino admitted meeting Chuang but denied any knowledge of her affair until it appeared in media two days later. Chuang also claimed to have been romantically involved with a member of Palino’s campaign team, Luigi Wewege.
Palino stood again at the 2016 elections, coming fourth behind Phil Goff, Vic Crone and Chlo¨e Swarbrick. In 2020, he returned to his native America with his partner and young son. Palino is standing on his previous campaign theme of creating new urban centres on unproductive land to manage population growth and social issues. “This is a chance to develop Auckland into a worldrecognised city for providing jobs, education, entertainment, sports, recreation and housing.”