Perspective with Ryan Bridge: Wellington is in for a tempestuous election campaign - Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

The Wellington Mayoral race was supposed to be winding down into boring town. 

Tory went wild, had a tipsy whirlwind on Courtenay Place. A bit of booze, a bit of dine and dashing. It was salacious, it was scandalous. 

As stories of late-night escapades and unpaid bills and missed council meetings flooded the newspapers, the streets flooded, literally. Every time a scandal burst onto the front page of The Post, so did a pipe. It was as if Wellington’s infrastructure were protesting the incompetence at City Hall. 

Poonamis. An onslaught of cycleways. Crime. And still no second Mount Victoria tunnel. 

It all came to a head, of course. Andrew Little entered the chat. Tory pulls out. 

And from here it was meant to get boring. You know in an action movie when all the crazy stuff happens, there's half an hour left on the clock, but the world's been saved by superhero XYZ? All the main cast is safe and well and life goes on happily ever after? 

That's where I thought we were with Wellington's Mayoral Race. 

Well, Wellington, you're getting a sequel – within the original.  

Mayoral candidate Ray Chung sent his colleagues an email, regaling them with a story a friend told him while he was out walking his dog. In it, he says, Tory Whanau had drug-fuelled tempestuous sex with a bunch of young guys. He also claims he was told that she had pendulous soft breasts.  

It's starting to smell a little bit like Ontario in Canada. Remember the mayor who was accused of smoking crack? Just scandal through a local election campaign. 

To get real for a minute, two things. One: Tory denies the story completely and utterly rejects it.  

Two: Ray sent this to three fellow councillors on their personal email addresses. So, it was a private email, he claims. And Ray reckons that one of those people has leaked it to Tory, who has leaked it to the press.  

So then you start to wonder, is one of Ray’s former fellow council mates now turning on him, perhaps for political reasons? I don't know the answer to that question. All I really know is that Wellington, you need some popcorn because you're in for one hell of a tempestuous election campaign.   

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