A community style campaign - Marian Hobbs' success in Wellington Central

Women Talking Politics

Summer, 2000

For Wellington central's newest MP, it wasn't just winning that counted it was the style of her campaign. As it happens, Labour's Marian Hobbs did win the campaign with a 1,482 majority, leaving Act's Richard Prebble the only party leader not to hold an electorate seat. Hobbs knew she'd have a tough battle on her hands against Prebble who'd held the high profile electorate for just one term.

Hobbs was herself a one term MP - coming in on Labour's list in the country's first MMP election. This election, she decided to make a bid for Wellington central in favour of a South Island campaign for Kaikoura.

In December 1998 Hobbs and her team decided on the best strategy for the election campaign - not only to win the seat but also to help Labour take the bulk of the party vote. They decided on the style, set up the systems and then thoroughly researched the electorate. She also set up a central city electorate office, in the same building as Labour Party headquarters in downtown Willis Street.

Hobbs knew that as a backbench MP in opposition she stood little chance of winning the seat through the media. Conversely, Prebble enjoyed a reasonably high profile and as Act's leader was able to maximise on more media opportunities.

Hobbs and her team of 14 decided to have a community style campaign using canvassing, Saturday morning meetings and school, liaison group and cottage meetings.

"We believed that if people got to know me it would help me succeed," she says. "Wellington is a village and people talk over the garden fence. We also made a conscious decision not to talk about Prebble or talk about anything negatively. Instead I focussed on what I thought and would do and what our policies were."

In contrast, Prebble opted for a media based campaign. Hobbs knew she could be in for a tough campaign. But she says she never cared about what Prebble said about her simply because "it bore no resemblance to me". She admits campaigning can be a tough time for some women because it is easy to take comments or criticism personally. She often felt judged by the way she behaved, what she wore or even how she sounded. "If I raised my voice I was termed aggressive but if I was too quiet I was weak."

The hardest part of the campaign for Hobbs was the public meetings in the last few weeks of the campaign. Three were particularly noisy and there were no microphones. She describes the yelling as "like being physically battered. They were absolutely brutal." Hobbs' way of protecting herself was to keep her team around her and make sure she could leave when she wanted to. "My team was vital during those times," she says.

She says that at those meetings Prebble was cleverer than her at short comments and would deliberately focus on just one part of an argument, ignoring the rest. He often used the same incorrect facts so Hobbs learnt to pre-empt him by giving the correct version before he could distort it. "I had to make sure I got the correct story out. I was also able to pick up issues he hadn't worked out lines for and then he didn't have answers," she says. While this stopped Prebble in public meetings, it didn't stop him using the information in the newspapers or pamphlets.

Hobbs chose to counter Prebble's myths by concentrating on spreading her own messages. "It's all about spreading a perception to different sectors in the community," she says. Another tactic Hobbs employed was to use one of her team members to constantly analyse her performance and give her feedback.

Reflecting on her campaign, having just been appointed as a Minister in the new Labour-Alliance Government, Hobbs believes her community style campaign did work. "We had constant feedback from the most extraordinary quarters - the stories just keep growing and growing. I wanted to be seen as thoughtful, able to listen, network with people and have warmth, humour and personality and that's what came back."

More than 200 people helped Hobbs in the final throws of her campaign on election day. On election night, Hobbs said she was overwhelmed that she had won. "I didn't think I could do it without the specials," she said.

Hobbs acknowledges that it made a difference when Alliance candidate Phillida Bunkle pulled out of the race. National decided not to run a candidate earlier in the campaign in order to give Prebble a free run. "It would have been difficult for her but if I had been polling 10 percent and she 30 I think I would have considered it," she says.

Now Hobbs is looking forward to the challenge of her ministerial positions, which include broadcasting (including responsibility for RNZ, TVNZ and New Zealand on Air), environment, biosecurity, National Library, National Archives and associate communications.

Marian Hobbs was born in 1947. She has a BA from Canterbury University in English and Political Science, a Diploma of Teaching and a Master of Educational Administration. She began her teaching career at Hillmorton High School in 1972 and become deputy principal of Aranui High School in 1987 and was principal of Avonside Girls High School from 1989 to 1996. She was appointed principal of Wellington Girls College in May 1996 but did not take up the position and entered Parliament instead.