A few of my friends and acquaintances are running for Mayor of Wellington, challenging incumbent Kerry Prendergast, whose campaign has already cleverly started. Billboards celebrating Wellington have suddenly sprouted campaign messages for Kerry, and it seems she’ll be taking the usual route of mass media. And it might work. The colours are bright, the campaign is optimistic. It even feels grass-roots, even though it isn’t.
   Meanwhile, restaurateur and occasional Lucire reader John McGrath has said he will enter the race. It’s not so much that John has entered the race, but that a Facebook group exists to help campaign. That at least will make him more appealing to the modern generation, in theory, as it gives him potential to interact with his potential constituents.
   The thing is: he hasn’t yet. He has set up a website, and has put up downloadable videos for starters. His Facebook page has a strange American misspelling and other oddities. He’s also put up a “blog” with no comment links. So I have to ask, with the greatest respect to John, who has shown up to a number of my dos, and to whom I have given money so I can enjoy the food at his joints: how is this campaign different from Kerry’s? It’s the same, one-way campaign, just with different channels.
   I did joke with Dick and Diana Hubbard that perhaps I could run for the mayoralty in Auckland, to show that a Wellingtonian with no interest in living in the larger city could get more votes than Mr Steve Crow, whom I understand is known best for peddling adult material and known less for making the odd lewd comment to my female friends. Let’s say I’ve considered politics. But I would turn this blog into a campaign one—I mean, why not talk to the people who might put you in power? Get a reputation. Let Wellingtonians nickname you Mayor McHottie as San Franciscans do with Gavin Newsom. And keep the blog going into the mayoralty: provide real behind-the-scenes stuff.
   I would like to see Wellingtonians get to know the candidates, but right now, everything is just too old-media, protecting them in their bubbles. This, naturally, favours Kerry, who has more photo ops and a sense of the familiar. In such a case, it is better the devil you know than the devil you don’t. Politics, it seems, remains an old-fashioned game in this mayoral race, with new media (so far) used as old media always had been. Posted by Jack Yan, 06:36  permalink

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