Fuster and Cluck ride again?

Written By: - Date published: 1:39 pm, February 27th, 2016 - 13 comments
Categories: auckland supercity, C&R, len brown, local body elections, national, same old national, the praiseworthy and the pitiful - Tags: , ,

luigi_wewege_bevan_chuang_and_john_palino_odt

Remuera branch meetings of the National Party must be fun events these days.  John Palino has all but confirmed that he is going to give the Auckland mayoralty another run and if the rumours are correct his campaign manager will be the one and only Simon Lusk.

From Rebecca Wright at one news:

John Palino is standing to be the Mayor of Auckland.

He will make the announcement next Monday at 2pm at his new cafe, Friend of the Farmer in Takanini.

I know this because the man himself just rang me to let me know where and when he will be declaring.

I’ve also spoken to several people Palino has approached to be part of his campaign, all of whom – without exception – have run a mile.

She followed it up with this update.

Controversial right-wing political strategist Simon Lusk is confirmed to be running John Palino’s mayoral campaign.

Lusk is an ally of Whale Oil blogger Cameron Slater and a central figure in Nicky Hagar’s book Dirty Politics.

On his website Lusk says “he believes that the amateur nature of politics in New Zealand means that spending money and professionalism can win campaigns”.

John Slater is not involved at this stage.

Cameron Slater has rubbished the idea without offering any further information.  Time will tell.

Victoria Crone must be wondering what has happened to the famed National Party discipline and Mark Thomas will have an interesting eight months travelling through the city all to no avail.  Palino’s inclusion will make what already appeared to be a very likely outcome for Phil Goff into an almost inevitability.

The announcement raises all sorts of questions:

  1. Who is funding the campaign?
  2. If Lusk is involved how much is he going to be paid?
  3. Will Luigi Wewege be involved?
  4. Did Palino and Slater really think that by breaking the news just after the last local body election they could engineer Palino into the Mayor’s office?
  5. Does he still deny knowing about the Len Brown affair even though most of Auckland’s right knew about it well in advance?
  6. Does he agree that threatening to expose the news of the affair unless Brown resigns may be blackmail?
  7. Will he run as a C&R candidate?
  8. Will the right have two tickets this year, C&R and Auckland Future?

Interesting times …

 

13 comments on “Fuster and Cluck ride again? ”

  1. fender 1

    One way to promote a new café, Friend of the Ponytail Puller would have been a better name though.

  2. greywarshark 2

    Here is a cautionary tale of a campaign in the USA and how participants can end up being sad and sorry for partaking. All about Mr Custer and an errant entry into the fight. His voice rang loud and clear “What am I doing here!”
    (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0nHWAoIfxo

    There is even a plan of the campaign and those involved in the Auckland one might be able to amend it for their own purposes.

  3. Penny Bright 3

    GREAT news John Palino is apparently standing as yet another Auckland Mayoral candidate!

    SO many pro-business / pro-Supercity 2016 Auckland Mayoral candidates!

    Keep splitting that vote ….

    Looking forward to comparing the proven track records of all the other Auckland Mayoral candidates, when it comes to defending the LAWFUL rights of citizens to ‘open, transparent and democratically accountable’ local government in Auckland?

    I’ve put my freehold house on the line to defend these LAWFUL rights.

    What have any of the other Auckland Mayoral candidates done?

    I note that fellow ‘Independent’ Auckland Mayoral candidate Phil Goff (currently the Labour MP for Mt Roskill), supports the TPPA, road tolling, and PPPs.

    Is this now the position of City Vision?

    (Who have endorsed Phil Goff as an Auckland Mayoral candidate?)

    Penny Bright
    2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.

    • Chris 3.1

      Yeah, splitting the right wing vote even more guarantees Goff hasn’t got a hope.

      • Penny Bright 3.1.1

        How do you define ‘left’ and ‘right’?

        In my view, the Rogernomics 1984-87 Labour Government ( in which Phil Goff was a Cabinet Minister) made those terms meaningless.

        What I prefer is corporate minority vs public majority.

        Penny Bright
        2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.

        • Chris 3.1.1.1

          In my view, the Rogernomics 1984-87 Labour Government ( in which Phil Goff was a Cabinet Minister) I would call a bunch of right wing fuckers. And I’d say the same thing about every Labour government since and almost undoubtedly about every Labout government from now on, if there will in fact ever be another Labour government.

    • Sacha 3.2

      “City Vision? (Who have endorsed Phil Goff as an Auckland Mayoral candidate?)”

      From their website:
      http://cityvision.org.nz/news/media-release-city-vision-welcomes-phil-goffs-mayoral-announcement-and-prepares-for-2016-campaign/

      “While City Vision is yet to make a formal Mayoral endorsement decision, we believe that we could work collaboratively with Mr Goff to build a better Auckland”, says Waitematā Local Board Chair, Shale Chambers.”

  4. gsays 4

    biggest surprise for me was one news referencing nicky hagar and dirty politics.

  5. mary_a 5

    Team Dynamo … Palino, Lusk, Slater (no doubt) with the (Luigi) Ouija as Palino’s possible PR rep! Give me strength!

    So we JAFA’s can expect dirty politics to raise its ugly head once more!

  6. Smilin 6

    Pathetic waste of time and money glad its theirs

  7. Incognito 7

    It begs the question: why do it?

  8. Tautuhi 8

    It’s a ploy to split the vote and get the Neo-liberal Goff elected?

    Heard that through the grapevine?

  9. John 9

    If John Palino is so great at business why did the SoNo market he set up in Connecticut failed so quickly?
    If as he says in stuff he knows how to hire the right people did he hire Luigi Wewege?
    And interestingly the stuff interview was set up by the slug.
    Dirty is as dirty does.