FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

21st April 2009

Banks Front Runner But Vulnerable

John Banks is the clear front runner for the Mayoralty of the Auckland Super City.

These findings are from questions to Auckland respondents in two UMR Research Omnibus surveys [1].

In a crowded field of media identified possibilities he emerges as top choice with 17% support, followed by Bob Harvey on 10% and Stephen Tindall on 9%.

John Banks, however, would clearly be vulnerable to a “stop Banks” candidate if the contest effectively develops into a two horse field. If the contest remains on a multi-candidate basis John Banks would probably win.

His ratings of how well he would do the job are only modest and leave him open to challenge.

11% of Aucklanders think he would make a very good Mayor of the Super City, 22% a fairly good Mayor, 24% are neutral, 31% think he would do a fairly poor or poor job and 13% don’t know enough or are undecided.

Aucklanders are fairly evenly divided on the Super City concept with 45% in favour and 43% against.

ENDS

Auckland_Super_City_Support_Apr09.pdf

[1 - UMR’s fortnightly Omnibus telephone survey randomly samples n=750 New Zealanders aged 18 years and over. It has a margin of error of + 3.6%. Questions on the Super City were asked of 483 Aucklanders over surveys conducted from 5th to 13th and 19th to 22nd March 2009. ]

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