Meeting the locals while doorknocking in Johnsonville today. More temptations were top of the agenda.

Coward.

Here's my exhaustive list of WCC candidates across the political spectrum I think you should consider voting for this year. See link for justifications/reckons, I'll tl;dr it here: www.reddit.com/r/Wellington...

Ray has a pendulous relationship with the truth at the best of times and this is further desperation to try and tie his opponents to something that we had absolutely no involvement in.

I wasn't planning on sharing thoughts about preferences in Takapū but after some dire meetings with candidates who don't believe in climate change, are anti-housing and/or against Māori Wards, here's my reckons: #2: John Apanowicz #3: Tony/Andrea The rest are deeply unserious.

Early days but Takapū looks to be blazing the field on returned votes at 9.49%. Wharangi close behind: 9.43% Pukehīnau: 7.48% Motukairangi: 7.76% Paekawakawa: 6.19% Te Whanaganui-a-Tara: 4.39%

Never would've guessed the two hottest issues at the 1841 debate tonight would've been horses (in Crofton Downs) and me calling out candidates for not knowing the role Kiwi Community Assistance play in our community. If you want to run in the Takapū Ward, get to know it 🤷‍♂️

I've never seen so many people in a room that aren't from Tawa (cough, Better Wellington, cough).

Power outages happen but combined with cell networks crawling to a halt and Wellington Electricity's website being unable to load, that was a pretty uncomfortable one.

It's another day ending in 'y' so the Better Wellington team are peddling out more bullshit. This time farcical complaints of intimidation when they were the ones intimidating. Strange how every other person there has a different version of events. www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360...

Sure bro.

When the question of retaining the Māori Ward came up last night, I was the only candidate who gave a simple yes/no answer.

This is equal parts pathetic and hilarious. www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/3608...

Internet discourse in 2025: wHy ArEnT yOu DeBaTiNg ThE gUy WiTh A cOnFeDeRaTe FlAg PrOfIlE pIcTuRe WhO sAyS mĀoRi WaRdS aRe RaCiSt?

It's a 'grab a pint of Guinness at 1841 after a bloody long weekend of campaigning' kind of evening. Almost split the G.

Had the Labour team out today at St Brigid's Kapa Haka Festival making sure Wellingtonians vote to keep the Māori Ward.

Predator Free Wellington sent local body candidates a small survey asking their views on the role of biodiversity + whether they'd support ongoing funding of $540k. Like Living Wage, it's another good barometer of who to vote for. www.pfw.org.nz/our-project/...

City to Sea Bridge update: Demolition is officially paused. The government will be announcing the recommendations of the earthquake-prone building review by the end of the month which could (key word, could) have impacts for Capital E.

Turns out not just Whanganui got shafted but also South Wairarapa District Council. Shocking stuff:

Maybe having a private company host local government elections isn't actually a great idea?

Māori ward candidate profiles left out of information booklet in Whanganui, faaaar canal.

Wild stuff in the Upper Hutt mayoral race. Bloxham is such a complete piece of shit and I feel for Peri having to deal with his crap. thespinoff.co.nz/politics/10-...

The green tick is a yes to all asks and the red is no or did not attend. ✅ – Support ALL Living Wage policy asks ❌ – Did not respond, said NO to the ASKS, or did not attend the Living Wage Election Forum/did not send reasonable apologies. 6/6 #nzpol

Wellington City Council Candidates have committed, by signing a commitment form, to the following policy asks: 1. Continue to value all of the Council’s workforce by remaining an accredited Living Wage Employer. 1/4 #nzpol

@ponekeben.bsky.social Newlands!

I'll always back our frontline workers with a commitment to decent wages. Library assistants, call centre staff and pool lifeguards are doing the hard mahi and deserve councillors who will support them:

Video reckons 👇

I've always found it weird Wellingtonians have to wait until after the election to find out who funded their candidates. While I've had no donations over the $1,500 disclosure limit, I've recieved: 💳 30 donations from 👥 25 donors, total of; 💰 $5,336.12, average of; 💲 $177.87; median of; 📊 $48.65

Breaking: Wally has also offered a full endorsement.

Big day for the McNulty campaign as we secure the endorsement of Wes. #bordercolliesforben

*Is fiscally conservative* *Votes to make it more expensive to do things*

Motion passes 13 to 3! Cheers to Minister Bishop for the law change, now we're going to use it.

WCC HAS PASSED OUR RAINBOW ACTION PLAN 🏳️‍🌈♥️ Wellington’s Rainbow community has played a huge role in shaping our city’s history, culture, and creativity. However, we also know that our Rainbow whānau can be some of our most vulnerable, facing a range of disparities across mental health and housing.

I've just asked our staff as we debate the Harbour Quays paper. 1) Is the C2S Bridge being demolished for bus lanes? No. 2) Is the C2S Bridge being demolished for cycle lanes? No.

I reckon today is an excellent day to pass a Notice of Motion that will begin a streamlined planning process that allows the council to delist heritage buildings from the District Plan.

At the Living Wage event tonight. Only 3 Mayoral candidates showed up (Karl not to support but to listen). Disappointing turnout.

Huge win for our Te Whanaganui-a-Tara candidate @ponekematt.bsky.social as he secures the endorsement of Te Āti Awa Nui Tonu for the Māori ward 💪 www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/3608...

Pretty much what Johnny says 👇

WCC wins the City to Sea Bridge judicial review.

President of the Ray Chung fan club reaches a new level of cope to tell us how running for the job you want only (& not the security of a fallback position) is somehow bad actually.

3,229 page agenda for the last real committee meeting of the term next week 🙃

My highlight of what was an incredibly weird Meet the Candidates Event in Johnsonville tonight was Ray Chung campaigning on the Independent Together Party:

Unintended consequence: we get to put up several hundreds of Kura signs around Wellington.

We're also implementing variable 30km/h speed limits around all 79 schools in Wellington under the Land Transport Rule: Setting of Speed Limits 2024.

@ponekeben.bsky.social YCBWOAGD bsky.app/profile/fff1...

The Regulatory Processes committee has a mammoth meeting on Thursday. One of the papers is approving upcoming road closures and Wellington is in for a banger summer of events:

With Land Value Rates in the news again yesterday, I thought it was time to talk about them with the crew from Common Ground Aotearoa:

Churton Park, gone but not forgotten.

Video reckons 👇

Labour candidates are the only grouping united in their support of reforming our heritage building rules ✅️ Incredibly disappointed most Mayoral candidates wouldn't front up given the survey was only 2 questions. Pretty safe to assume no response = no.