$250K for mayor run

By John Van Klaveren
A “SERIOUS” campaign for Geelong’s first direct mayoral election will cost at least $250,000, according to a fomer Melbourne Lord Mayor.
Kevin Chamberlin said mailouts alone to Geelong’s larger electoral roll would make a mayoral campaign more expensive than in City of Melbourne.
City of Greater Geelong has more than 167,000 enrolled voters compared to Melbourne’s 105,000.
“Anybody unable to spend a minimum of $250,000 for election in Geelong is not a serious candidate,” Mr Chamberlin said.
“In City of Melbourne elections we’ve costed other people’s campaigns in the past at nearly $600,000 and some of those did not even win.
“It costs at least $1 per voter for a mailout and if you don’t include at least one direct mail to every voter you’re not a serious candidate.”
The 2008 Melbourne mayoral election had 11 candidates including winner Robert Doyle, former Geelong councillor Peter McMullin and now-Greens MP Adam Bandt.
Victorian Electoral Com-mission recorded $400,725 in campaign donations to candidates.
Andy Worland, of Geelong-based advertising firm Circle Media, said a “bare bones” campaign would cost at least $60,000.
Costs included up to $10,000 for “basic” newspaper advertising, up to $8000 for a website, $5000 for search engine optimisation and $2000 for social media, he said
Print costs for brochures and other collateral would be at least $8000, with media releases costing a similar amount.
“You’d probably want to hold a number of events such as breakfasts with a minimum cost of around $3000 per event,” Mr Worland said.
“That’s what you’re looking at if you’re going to be serious. It’s still a light-on campaign without an addressed mailout.”
Incumbent Mayor John Mitchell told the Independent earlier this month that $30,000 would be the “upper-limit” of his campaign spending.
The City allowed $650,000 in its annual budget to pay for municipal elections on October 27.
Local Government Minis-ter Jeanette Powell’s spokes-man said the Melbourne and Geelong mayoral votes would be reviewed.
“We just want to have a look at the systems and see where there are any benefits in possibly unifying them.”