Can Marama Davidson really win Tāmaki Makaurau?
I suspect there are only three people who can break Labour’s hold on Tāmaki Makaurau, the Māori electorate taking in most of the Auckland Isthmus: it’s either Pania Newton, the kaitiaki leader at Ihumātao; John Tamihere, the former Auckland mayoral candidate and ex-MP; or the Green Party co-leader and Manurewa local Marama Davidson. I doubt many others could do it, and for no other reason than in the Māori electorates your name, and the mana and connections that come with it, is everything.
There isn’t any grand reason for this. Instead it’s just prosaic. The home ownership rate for Māori is 43%, meaning a good number of people tend to move within and between electorates. Add the digital divide - in some Māori communities one in three households are offline – and sheer size – the largest Māori electorate is spread across an area more than double the size of Switzerland – and your best “get out the vote” method is name recognition. People turn out for their own.