Silly signs of candidate faces on the sides of roads were the difference in the end believes defeated Tauranga City Council candidate David Love.
David Love says roadside signs may have been the difference in the Tauranga City Council.
The first time candidate missed out narrowly in the election race, finishing with 7862 votes to his name for an at-large council seat.
He says his decision not to put up numerous road signs may have been his downfall.
'I think putting a sign up with your face saying vote for me demeans the election, but it seems to work; for Rick Curach in particular, who has had the same signs for the past few years.”
David says the electorate faced a lack of information about the candidates.
'SunLive did a great job trying to bring that information to the public; we desperately need more of that next time.
'People should not be winning on silly signs and slogans.”
There were 21 at-large candidates in the race. David finished fifth just behind the four elected councillors Tony Christiansen, Rick Curach, Bill Faulkner and Murray Guy.
'There were too many candidates standing at-large and we took too many votes between us and let the old ones back in.
'Tony Christiansen came from nowhere though. Good luck to him. He might be the breath of fresh air we need.”
David believes he ran a good, strong campaign.
'I don't think I could have done much more. I feel bad for my team, they did a lot of hard work. I ran a strong campaign on Twitter and Facebook, I spoke at every place I could and went to every meeting.”
He says it is too early to know whether he would run again in three years time.
'I haven't even started thinking about that yet.
'I'll be putting my head down and thinking about the future and what else I want to do. This city is a great place and there is plenty to do.”
Ben ‘Bronco' Tuck is proud of his effort in the Tauranga City Council election and says he could be back on the ballot in three years time.
Pipped at the post, Ben ‘Bronco' Tuck, says he would still consider running again in the election race.
'I will see how I go, it was a great experience and I learnt a lot.”
The managing director of Broncos Sports World says he just hopes the candidates elected will not be all ‘yes men'.
'I definitely wouldn't have been one of those.
'I hope these guys all get together and row the boat in the same direction and listen to the people.”
Ben says people are sick of paying high rates and council needs to be aware that people are still feeling the crunch.
'You don't have to be a wiz kid to work that out.”
He says he would have to do some more homework if he ran another campaign in three years time.
'I reckon I have plenty to offer. Some of these guys can't even read a balance sheet.
'It's all about name recognition. I don't know how you get your name out there – you have to get it in the paper somehow.”
Ben says he was happy with the 5914 votes he received.
'I was more than happy with the results. I wrote down I would be happy with 13-15 per cent of the votes and I think I got about 16 per cent in the end.
'I didn't spend a lot of money on the campaign.
'It's fantastic about Tony (Christiansen). He hardly did any campaigning.”
Read the full Tauranga City Council election preliminary rseults here.
9 comments
Love hates signs?
Posted on 11-10-2010 11:16 | By Murray.Guy
David love was very critical of the road side signs, saying they failed to inform adequately. This is a candidate who, I suspect, more than any other candidate, invested in signage that 'said nothing', name awareness purposes only, with large billboards, sign written cars, banner behind an aeroplane etc. My wife and I chose to not invest in any electioneering other than a few hundred dollars on our cars being sign written, hoping that the community would vote on our track record. Our level of support reflects that decision. Signage is a critical componant in a suite of electioneering options. Some to inform, some to reinforce / brand awareness.
Silly signs
Posted on 11-10-2010 11:23 | By snoopy
It's not all about the signs. There were no roadside signs from Bill Faulkner, and I didn't see any from Murray Guy either.
Bad Luck
Posted on 11-10-2010 14:10 | By Jitter
Bad luck David you came so close. Two possible reasons you did not make it.1. You had a crack at all the election signage littering the roadsides but then yourself had massive signage on a trailer, a car with your signs on, both of these were moved around the city which increased the littering of roadsides and on top of that you had a banner towed behind an aircraft all over Tauranga. People I spoke to were not impressed. 2. Crosby included you in his preferred list of councillors. This did not go down well as it looked as though you would be included in the "Crosby rat pack".
A splitting headache
Posted on 11-10-2010 14:56 | By esquire
The vote splitting seems to be the crux here. Great observation that there were too many 'new' candidates, thus splitting the vote for change. Another three years of the same...
Vote Splitting
Posted on 11-10-2010 17:40 | By Murray.Guy
We need to look at the nomination process. As it stands we have no knowledge of potential nominees before nominating ourselves. I suggest a period, say 6 months out from an election, where folk are required to FIRST signal their consideration to nominate. This would enable nominees to pull out as they felt fit if they perceived a stronger, more qualified candidate was available. The mayoralty was very split with the coimmunity having, firstly, two choices. Stick with existing or change. The vote was almost 50/50, hardly a landslide or a mandate of support for either side of the fence.
get over it people
Posted on 12-10-2010 15:25 | By The author of this comment has been removed.
If you Don't advertise, something TERRIBLE happens . . . NOTHING! For gods sake get over the signage sideshow . . . it's for how long? We have got another 3 years of some really dodgy NEW councillors - give me a couple of weeks signage any day - at least a couple of weeks of looking at a few signs will not ROB me, or take away my rights or inflict a lifetime of other peoples demands upon my family.
Posted on 12-10-2010 15:33 | By The author of this comment has been removed.
I would rather Laugh at some of the faces and the funny messages on a few signs for a couple of weeks than have to cry for a lifetime due to the damages inflicted upon us by a few unprincipled, opportunist would-be do-gooder bureacrats. Any more REALLY BAD candidates, and I really WOULD be forced to vote for the less of 2 evils
IT’S LIKE A WASTING DISEASE – TCC STYLE
Posted on 13-10-2010 13:53 | By Ratcatcher
The gullible Tauranga voters or the 43% of the 80,350 eligible voters who without thinking, have just sold us out to the ‘snake oil' merchants, rather than support people who were qualified to make a meaningful change. Going with the floating butterflies, when Tauranga needed to be stung in action by the bees means all the following crap and much more will now continue unabated: - TCC Rates increasing over next 2 years - at least 30% predicted Ballooning TCC debt approaching $400 million An out of control Council bureaucracy Increasing Council Staff numbers = 500 + Increasing TCC wage bill, nudging $40 million Southern Pipeline - $250 million (more like ½ Billion dollars by 2015) Amalgamation of Councils State of the Art Museum - $20 million TISEC $45 million and escalating Baypark Stadium - huge annual losses City Aquatics - huge annual losses City Partners - a mutual admiration society Eastern Arterial nonsense SmartGrowth clobbering machine Waterfront redevelopment - $30 million plus MAJOR PROBLEMS WITH TCC Lack of financial nous No accountability No transparency No honesty with ratepayers Enjoy the moment while you can, once the euphoria wears off, everyone will experience the harm you as voters have done to Tauranga and its inhabitants. Crosby received 21% of the total of those eligible to vote as opposed to those that did vote - in other words, 79% didn't support him and as for his wish list of candidates provided by Ms. Pankhurst that fared even worse, averaging out at around 15%. i.e., 85% of the Electorate didn't give them their support either by voting against them or not voting at all.
SIGNS ADD NO VALUE
Posted on 14-10-2010 19:40 | By The Master
FACT THE SIGNS ARE WRITTEN BY THE CANDIDATE, IT IS THE PAPERS JOB TO INVESTIGATE AND REVEAL THE TRUTH OF WHO THEY REALLY ARE, REMINDS ME OF A MULTIPLE REPEAT OF THE DEVONPORT NAVAL BASE CV MESS THAT TOOK FIVE YEARS TO SPOT THE FAKE CV.
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