Three nominate for Port Stephens mayoral election

LET the games begin.

The names have been drawn and the candidates set to contest the September council elections have been confirmed at a ballot draw last week. 

Candidates running in the east, central and west wards filled the electoral office in Raymond Terrace to get a first glimpse of their competitors and to find out where they would sit on the voting slips come September 8. 

And while there will be plenty of new faces campaigning this year, there are plenty of familiar ones too. 

West ward councillor Glenys Francis is the only sitting representative not to seek re-election in some form, however several other councillors have taken a back seat and will appear further down on the ballot, making their relection unlikely. 

In the Port’s first popularly-elected mayoral contest there will be three candidates, all of them current councillors; Geoff Dingle, Bruce MacKenzie and Sally Dover.  They will appear on the voting slip in that order. 

There was some disparity in the number of candidates running in each ward, with seven tickets in the east, seven plus one un-grouped candidate in central, but only five in the west.

In the east ward ballot Greens candidate Nathan Warburton received the highly mythologised top spot, a position often said to be a popular choice for those exercising a protest or ‘donkey’ vote. Mr Warburton, however, said he did not place much stock in the belief.  ‘‘If I do get elected I’ll probably have councillors telling me ‘it’s the donkey vote’, but I don’t put much into that, people vote for the policy, not the position on a ballot paper,’’ he said.