Auckland mayoral hopefuls: Efeso Collins’ $98k overspend, Viv Beck had cash left

Auckland mayoral runner-up Efeso Collins spent $98,385 more than he raised for his campaign, despite a late donation from his predecessor Phil Goff’s 2019 election kitty.

Labour and Greens-endorsed Collins has declared expenses of $410,636, and donations including some “in-kind” of $312,251.

Collins’ biggest backer was Mark Todd of apartment-builder Ockham Residential, who chipped in $55,000, while “Phil Goff for Mayor” put in $20,000 just weeks before the election, from funds leftover from 2019.

Collins was beaten by 57,000 votes by Wayne Brown, whose campaign cost almost $470,000.

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Other significant supporters were fitness empire owner Phillip Mills ($15,000), the Maritime Workers and Dairy Workers unions, and Arend Merrie, a surgeon who spoke out publicly criticising Brown’s conduct while the former chair of the Auckland District Health Board.

The endorsed centre-right candidate Viv Beck, who pulled out just weeks before the election day, ended up with a $91,000 surplus – she raised $315,672 and declared expenses totalling $224,954.

The numbers are smaller than the $353,000 which her original campaign advertising agency said it was owed in a public spat part-way through the campaign.

The outcome of that row, which Beck has not disclosed other than to say the debt was not hers, is not clear from the declaration and neither Beck nor her campaign manager responded to Stuff’s approaches.

Most of Beck’s money flowed in through the Auckland Society, a fund-raising vehicle created to support centre-right candidates, which contributed a $310,000 bundle.

Beck’s biggest individual backers were commercial landlord Andrew Krukziener, whose company put in $107,000, with oil company owner and America’s Cup hosting campaigner Mark Dunphy, donating $100,000.

Wayne Brown won the contest comfortably gaining 181,000 votes – 57,000 clear of Labour and Greens-endorsed Efeso Collins, with Craig Lord a further 100,000 votes behind in third.

Brown’s successful campaign was the biggest spender at $470,000, with a $58,000 contribution from the country’s richest man, billionaire Graeme Hart.

Second-time candidate Craig Lord had talked of Brown having “truckloads” of cash, something which his social media-focused campaign lacked, and his return showed he spent nearly $45,000.

Leo Molloy appeared to have a big spending campaign, but because he withdrew hours before the statutory declaration period began, his spending does not have to be disclosed.