Vic Crone has long claimed she was an independent candidate, but no longer.
She never was anyway. Linked with Michelle Boag, Nikki Kaye and Paul Goldsmith she has now got the backing of Peter Goodfellow and Andrew Hunt.
Richard Harman at Politik wrote in his email yesterday:
National Party President Peter Goodfellow and Northern Region chair, Andrew Hunt, both yesterday endorsed Victoria Crone for the Auckland Mayoralty.
The endorsement came shortly after the party’s Northern Regional conference ended. Ms Crone did not attend but another centre-right candidate, Mark Thomas did. National is officially not involved in the local government campaign in Auckland though a new centre-right organisation called Auckland Future involves some National Party personalities.
Their pamphlets were available at the conference and Prime Minister John Key is to front a $200 a head fundraiser for them later this month.
Party officials have been anxious to try and promote a unified centre-right ticket for the elections later this year but attempts to try and get a voluntary agreement between Auckland Future and other centre-right candidates largely failed. Clearly the move yesterday is to try and force that agreement.
It is hard to understand these endorsements. Peter Goodfellow is the husband of Desley Simpson who is having a donnybrook with Auckland Future and Andrew Hunt is usually smarter than this.
The Tinder Candidate can’t claim she is independent, just like Phil Goff can no longer claim he is independent.
When you are taxied around Auckland in the President’s ex-ministerial BMW then it is pretty hard to claim independence.
– Politik
As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.
They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.
He is fearless in his pursuit of a story.
Love him or loathe him, you can’t ignore him.
