From His Cold Dead Hands

In his sights: Jim Anderton's campaigning skills pose a deadly threat to Christchurch Mayor, Bob Parker.

JIM ANDERTON is not the sort of politician to gracefully surrender political office for a well-earned retirement. Indeed, the prospect of Jim sitting quietly in a garden somewhere, puzzling out The Press’s crossword in between sips of sweetened tea, is so preposterously unlikely that it can be immediately discounted. No, James Patrick Anderton will die with his political boots on. They will have to prise the musket of power from his cold dead hands.

No surprise, then, to learn that Jim is taking aim at "Sideshow Bob" Parker for the Christchurch mayoralty.

Should Parker be worried?

Frankly, yes – he should. Because Jim is one of this country’s great campaigners. The fact that he was able, against all predictions, to hold Sydenham (later to become Wigram) in 1990 bears testimony to his extraordinary organisational prowess. So does Christchurch’s centre-left 2021 Team, which Jim (and his wife, Carole) played a major role in establishing back in the 1990s. Parker will have to whistle-up a superior on-the-ground organisation to beat Jim’s machine – and that will take some doing. He will also be running against his own record as Mayor – and that, too, will be far from easy.

Parker came into office back in 2007 as something of a political "clean-skin". He carried no obvious baggage from either the Left or the Right – a perception he turned to his political advantage with obvious success. Combined with his enduring television celebrity persona; his impressive record as the Mayor of the Bank’s Peninsula District Council; and his youthful and affable personality, Parker’s "independent", non-ideological, image made him the ideal candidate to succeed the equally youthful and affable Gary Moore.

So strong were these positive perceptions that Parker was able to win the Mayoralty without a genuine on-the-ground organisation. He already had massive name-recognition, a friendly and uncontroversial image, and his predecessor’s tacit endorsement. All he needed to become Mayor was a decent-sized war-chest and a half-way competent PR team – and he had both.

Once in office, however, Parker soon revealed himself to be a man of the Right. His populist crusade against "Boy Racers" provided the first indication of his deeply authoritarian political instincts. Not that his "tough" approach to these wayward youngsters counted against him with most Christchurch voters – not initially anyway. The real political damage followed his Council's curious decision to invest $17 million in a number of the right-wing businessman, Dave Henderson’s, speculative property ventures, and his attempt to impose a 24 percent rent-hike on some of the City’s poorest citizens.

These decision’s were fatal to Parker’s most valuable political asset – his non-ideological, competent and friendly image. No longer was he "that nice Bob Parker". Taken with his right-wing-dominated Christchurch City Council’s moves against the municipally-owned bus company, and his own role in the National Government’s outrageous anti-democratic coup against Environment Canterbury – Parker’s "signature" decisions in favour of the Right transformed him into "Hendo’s mate", and the creepy "Sideshow Bob" off The Simpsons.

It is this, the politically-transformed, and much-diminished, Bob Parker, that Jim is running against. And Parker will need a lot more than wads of cash and PR spin to slough off the dirty-skin in which Jim has rhetorically encased him.

The Incumbent’s best bet will be to focus on Jim’s age, and to play up his refusal to stand down as the MP for Wigram. Slim reeds at best – and unlikely to off-set the voters’ negative perceptions of Parker’s mayoral performance.

Jim’s campaign will suffer, however, from an issue that is related to his age and his office. Probably not in the front of the voters’ minds, but quite likely at the back of them, will be a nagging question: "Why has Jim no obvious protégé - or successor?"

After 26 years as a Christchurch MP, Jim should have an obvious heir-apparent, someone who could step into the Wigram seat and hold it for the Progressives. Or, even better, someone who, with Jim’s (and Jim’s machine’s) support, could make a credible run for the Christchurch mayoralty.

Sadly, there is no such person.

Jim is a wonderful campaigner, but he has not proved to be the sort of leader who gives thought to finding and preparing the person who will preserve his achievements and champion his causes after he has gone.

It will be a poor epitaph for what has been a remarkable political life, if the person who prises the power from James Patrick Anderton’s cold dead hands turns out to be not his chosen successor – but his worst enemy.