10-08-2025
All the celebrities* running in local elections around the country this year
Alex Casey takes a Hollywood tour through the star-studded candidates list.
For those who love to follow weird local celebrity gossip, it's slim pickings out there at the moment. Noel Edmonds has gone quiet, Brad Pitt has left the building by way of McDonald's drive-thru, and Jay-Jay and Minou's love story can only sustain interest for so long (although admittedly mine is yet to wane). We are left with nothing but mourning for Sam Neill's beloved duck Magda, and there's not even a season of Celebrity Treasure Island this year to numb the pain of it all.
If you've been left wondering what happened to all the quirky and interesting well-known personalities of Aotearoa, I recently discovered where many of them have been hiding out: local body politics. And while it took a little while to weed out the real big names from the flagrant imposters (looking at you Tony Bennett in Dunedin, Paul Williams in Waimakariri, Bill Hammond in Upper Hutt City), this year boasts a truly impressive number of celebrities* hitting the campaign trail.
Anne 'The Champagne Lady' Batley-Burton (Auckland)
The champagne importer, cat enthusiast and Real Housewives of Auckland star made big headlines in June, first announcing that she would be running for Auckland Council's Waitematā Local Board before also revealing that she was accidentally bowled over by her husband's car while trying to rescue a roaming cat. Running on the centre-right C&R ticket, Batley-Burton told the Herald she wants to reduce crime in Auckland's CBD ('quite scary'), stop the 'free for all' of housing intensification, and make desexing and microchipping free for cat owners. For more insights, here's a tipsy dispatch after I spent a whole day sipping champagne with her in 2017.
Jamaine Ross (Auckland)
You may know him for being crack-up on things like Frickin' Dangerous Bro, Guy Mont Spelling Bee, 7 Days and Have You Been Paying Attention, but Waitākere Ranges Local Board candidate Jamaine Ross now has a serious message: don't vote for him. 'Please don't,' the comedian pleaded from the front seat of his car in a recent video. 'This isn't a gag, this isn't a joke, this isn't some kind of weird reverse psychology thing to try and convince you to vote for me. Don't vote for me. I don't want to do it, OK?' Intriguing, confusing and conversation-starting for sure.
Michael Organ (Whanganui)
Famous for a star turn in the David Farrier documentary Mister Organ, Michael Organ is running for one of 10 Whanganui General Ward councillor positions on Whanganui District Council this year and I am genuinely too scared to write anything else.
Pennywize (Wellington)
Let the chills continue with this homage to an evil clown who famously lures kids into drains with paper boats and then eats them. Luckily, this Pennywize (with a z) is mostly looking to return 'sanity, common sense, swamps, moa and hokioi Haast's eagles to the streets of Te Whanganui-a-Tara' in their mayoral bid this year. If your blood is curdled by the idea of a horror sound-a-like roaming the streets, you just wait till you hear who is running in Ōamaru (Ferdie Kruger).
Teal Mau (Wellington)
Hairdresser Teal Mau captured our hearts when he competed with wife Sophia in My Kitchen Rules NZ in 2017. 'The coolest MKR chef remains 'international man of mystery' Teal, who it is revealed everyone is scared of because he looks a lot like Johnny Depp and almost never talks,' we wrote at the time. The comparison appears to have stuck around, not helped by the fact that Mau recently responded to a NZ Herald question about Depp with the phrase 'parley' – a pirate negotiation term lifted directly from The Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Mau is running for one of three Pukehīnau/Lambton General Ward councillor positions on Wellington Council, where he wants to give business owners a voice, keep young people in the city, and presumably find the beating heart of Davy Jones.
Will Hall (Christchurch)
He's faced down the Ferndale Strangler, but how might he handle the constituents of Christchurch? You might recognise Will Hall as Dr Kip Denton from Shortland Street, or the mutton-chopped Mike McCarthy from Westside, but the actor has more recently been gunning for a new role: repping the good people of Heathcote Ward on the Waihoro Spreydon-Cashmere-Heathcote Community Board. Running with the campaign slogan 'where there's a Will, there's a way,' Hall told Stuff in 2022, when he unsuccessfully ran for ward councillor, that there was Nothing Trivial (another show he starred in for several years) about his acting background: 'I'm new to politics and that's an advantage; no preconceptions, I'm independent, energetic with common-sense.'
Mandy Mayhem (Dunedin)
In a way, Mandy Mayhem being one of the 1,000 people in the Dunedin Study is about as famous as you can get. OK, so you're involved in the world's most detailed longitudinal study of human development? That DO impress-a me much. The Dunedin mayoral candidate is also a ringmaster, a black belt in taekwondo, spent six years on the Waikouaiti-Coast Community Board, and was elected as a Dunedin City councillor in 2022. She's also been described as a ' pirate queen ' – just don't tell Teal up in Wellies or we might have to hose down the Black Pearl.
Suzanne Prentice (Invercargill)
She's performed with Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash and basically every single New Zealand child alive for the Kids for Kids national tour in the 90s and 2000s, but these days you're more likely to find country music legend Suzanne Prentice in a meeting than on the big stage. First challenging Tim Shadbolt for the mayoralty in 2010, Prentice has since become a familiar name in Invercargill local politics and is now dreamin' her dreams of being re-elected to the Invercargill Licensing Trust in 2025. (PS: I don't know what the NZ equivalent of an EGOT is, but Prentice has already nabbed a New Year's honour and a star on the walk of fame this year alone.)
Steve Broad (Invercargill)
Speaking of Invercargill crooners, it's only bloody Steve Broad from NZ Idol and X Factor NZ! First arriving on our screens in 2005, all wide eyes and long hair, the blondini from the south came third in season two of NZ Idol (later won by Rosita Vai). A whole decade later, he returned to the singing competition stage for X Factor NZ in 2015, a season so massively overshadowed by the Kills-Moon explosion that we all forgot his moving rendition of ' Summertime Sadness '. He outlasted suit thief Joe Irvine, but Broad was eliminated in the quarter finals. In 2023, he successfully ran in the Invercargill City Council byelection, and will be looking to ' Stay ' on as a councillor in 2025.
Paddy O'Brien (Invercargill)
Invercargill's stardust continues to shine with O'Brien, the world's first ever professional rugby referee who is also standing for re-election to the Invercargill Licensing Trust this year. O'Brien refereed the first ever professional match between the Hurricanes and the Blues in 1996, and went on to referee 80 more Super Rugby matches, two Rugby World Cups, and 218 first-class matches.
Marcus Lush (Invercargill)
OK, Invercargill is basically Madame Tussaud's at this point. Although he called 'bullshit' on the celebrity title back in 2022, there's no denying that councillor candidate Marcus Lush is a heavy hitter to round out the city's cavalcade of celebri– sorry, notable characters. He has been in the public eye (and/or ear) since the late 80s, be it fronting documentary series like Off the Rails and South, or hosting stints on bFM, Radio Live and his current late-night gig on Newstalk ZB. An impressive CV, but even someone as experienced as Lush can admit his shortcomings. 'I'm not a Kardashian,' he once told The Spinoff. 'It's not like I've done a sex tape.'
