The hidden costs of a seat around the council table
As the local body elections loom, Susan Edmunds looks at what candidates will have to stump up.
So you want to be a city councillor… All around the country, roadsides are covered with billboards bearing the smiling faces of council hopefuls.
But how much does it actually cost to run for a seat at the council table, and is the pay-off worth it?
The basics
How much you have to spend on a campaign can vary a lot.
If you’re standing in a community where everyone knows everyone else, you may already have most of the networks you need to get your voice heard.
But if you are in a bigger centre, you need to spend money to put your face and message in front of as many people as possible.
People in small wards with less physical areas and a smaller population to cover generally spend less, as do those who’ve run campaigns before and can recycle old materials.
People in larger wards, and running for the mayoralty, usually spend more. Last election, candidate expenses ranged from a couple of hundred dollars for those who ran unopposed to more than $400,000 spent by Phil Goff in Auckland.
There are set limits on how much candidates can spend, starting at $3500 for areas with up to 5000 people. The Auckland mayoral limit is about $640,000.
People who run as part of a ticket, usually backed by a political party, have more opportunity to spread the cost of a campaign – although they usually have to stump up some money to be included in the first place. Signs
Steve Capper, who is standing for the first time in the Okara ward in Whangarei, said he had spent $1200 already on four large and three small billboards.
‘‘I may end up buying a few more small ones.’’
Palmerston North mayoral and city council candidate Andy Asquith has had to put signs up across the whole of Palmerston North, because the council does not operate a ward system.
Shane Henderson, who is standing for council in Waitakere, Auckland, said good coverage with signs could easily run into tens of thousands of dollars. He expected to spend about $30,000 all up on his campaign.
Julie Fairey, who is running for Puketa¯ papa Local Board, said she would spend $20 to $30 on a big sign or $10 or $15 on a small one but her team recycled wood from previous campaigns. Some of the backboards in use now are from campaigns run in the 1980s. But that created its own costs for storage between campaigns.
2016 Waitemata-Gulf candidate Bill Ralston spent more than $5000 on billboards out of a total spend of
$37,000, council records show, while Goff spent about $45,000.
Photos and video
You’ll also need professional photos and video to run in your advertising. Wellington Mayor Justin Lester spent more than $8000 on campaign videos at his previous campaign.
Fairey said a photo was required for the candidate booklets and a professional photo always looked better. Then, candidates would have to ensure that they continued to look like the photo. For her, that meant more frequent haircuts.
Mail drops
Capper has spent $450 on 5000 flyers and 200 business cards. He originally planned to deliver them all himself but has instead organised to pay $100 per 1000 to have them delivered.
Asquith said he was not bothering with a mail drop because they just seemed to end up in the recycling bin. ‘‘I’m trying to build profile at debates and events.’’
For Fairey, direct mail was only used in her campaign if funds allowed. She allocated budget to promoting posts on social media to reach a wider network, and also built up followers between election campaigns.
Advertising
Radio, television, print and social media sucks up a lot of candidates’ budget, too. You don’t have to be running a $100,000-plus multimedia advertising strategy, like Goff did, to spend a lot of money.
Candidate expense forms from last election show it’s common to spend several thousand dollars on advertising campaigns.
Time away from the rest of your life
Fairey said a significant cost for her was childcare because her husband was out of town for work a lot and campaigning required that she was either away from home, or working at home on things such as campaign content.
Her kids were in more school holiday programmes this year than they would normally be.
Capper said there was a complex schedule of meet-the-candidates evenings to attend over what added up to about two months of campaigning.
And what’s the pay-off at the end?
How much you could expect to earn if you were successful varies a lot around the country. Auckland City councillors get $111,901 a year. Christchurch also pays more than
$100,000. Smaller centres get less:
$40,000 or $50,000 in most cases for what is billed as three days’ work every week.
Henderson and Capper said the cost of running for council could be enough to put some people off.
People had to go ‘‘cap in hand’’ to friends and family, Henderson Steve Capper plans not to spend anything like his $20,000 limit. said. But in many cases the candidates were left funding their campaigns out of their own money. ‘‘It’s a strange job where every three years you have to reapply and pay a lot of money for the privilege.’’
Henderson said if people were more engaged with the council election process it would be easier to get a message across more cheaply.
Fairey said few people would run for council for the money.
‘‘If you sat down and did a cost benefit analysis, and factored in the uncertainty as well, there are other things you would do with your time if you were doing it for the money.’’