Radio host and . . . mayor?
Invercargill City councillor and prominent broadcaster Marcus Lush will contest the Invercargill mayoralty.
Speculation has been rife that Lush would run for the mayoral position, although right up until Friday his public position was that he was undecided.
However, yesterday he joined eight other candidates who have announced they are standing in the October 8 election, which includes incumbent Sir Tim Shadbolt.
Lush intends to continue his job as Newstalk ZB’s 8pm to 12pm talkback host if he became mayor. He believed he could juggle both jobs.
His key push as mayor would be enhancing Invercargill as a liveable city that is attractive for families. He said the city was in desperate need of the likes of dentists and doctors and Invercargill needed to appeal to them.
He said much of the focus of late had been on things such as Shadbolt’s clash with his own council over a rental car, and protesting farmers.
The region needed to do a better job of selling itself to the rest of the country, Lush said.
He has received some support and encouragement from Taranaki District mayor Neil Holdom and others which led to him deciding to have a shot at the role.
At the recent 2022 NZ Radio Awards, Lush, for the sixth consecutive year, was the winner of the Best Talk Presenter – NonBreakfast or Drive category.
Lush stepped into local body politics in 2021 when he won a byelection for a spot on the Invercargill council. He won with 7371 votes with the next closest candidate picking up 1534 votes.
Lush has lived in the south since 2002 where he has made Bluff his home with his partner, Vanessa, and their two sons, Denver and Tracker.
He has been critical of the Invercargill City Council in the past for spending too much time focusing on tourism projects for Bluff and not enough on helping the community thrive.
The council has developed the Bluff Motupō hue Tourism Masterplan for the port town, but Lush, in 2021, felt the focus on tourism was a ‘‘back to front’’ approach for the township. ‘‘The council should focus on making Bluff a vital and exciting community. If that happens, the tourism will follow. I just think the feeling is we have got the horse before the cart,’’ he said at the time.
Latterly he has also been outspoken about the city council’s multimillion-dollar investment in an inner-city block development in Invercargill.
The list of mayoral candidates has expanded and shrunk this week in a rapidly moving feast as nominations officially close at midday tomorrow.
At one stage there were nine candidates who had publicly said they were standing. That list included Noel Peterson, Nobby Clark, Ria Bond, Tom Morton, Darren Ludlow, Toni Biddle, Rebecca Amundsen, Ian Pottinger and Shadbolt.
Then Amundsen and Pottinger both withdrew as mayoral candidates and instead are running for councillor positions.
Yesterday, Lush and Steve Chernishov pushed the number back to nine again for voters to select from when they cast their votes in October.