Labour candidate 'optimistic' of winning Kaipara ki Mahurangi seat after Penk's resignations

Labour's candidate for Kaipara ki Mahurangi is optimistic of winning the blue seat after National's Chris Penk pulled out of the race.National has confirmed it will find a new candidate to contest the seat.In a statement issued by the PM's office on Wednesday night, Penk said he had decided not to stand in the election after discussions with his family.That followed his demotion from Cabinet and having all his portfolios stripped in the wake of an hours-long caucus meeting earlier in the day, where Prime Minister Christopher Luxon survived a vote of confidence."Chris Penk launched a leadership challenge this week, which resulted in today's confidence vote," the PM's office said.Chris Penk.RNZ / Zach CornelisenIn a one-line statement to RNZ, National's president Sylvia Wood said the party would find a replacement for the November election."The National Party acknowledges the resignation of Chris Penk and the enormous contribution he has made to the party and his electorate over the last nine years. A new candidate for Kaipara-ki-Mahurangi will be selected in line with the National Party's rules and constitution," she said.Penk has held the Kaipara ki Mahurangi seat - between Northland and Auckland city - since its creation in the 2020 election, having held its predecessor Helensville after the retirement of former National Prime Minister John Key.He won a 9.7 percent majority of 4435 votes in the "red wave" election of 2020, boosting that to 39.63 percent or 19,459 votes when National swept back into power in 2023.But Labour's candidate for the seat Jo Swinburn told RNZ winning the seat would be a challenge but Penk's resignation had changed the calculus."When I've been speaking to people in the electorate, they're not particularly happy with where National's at, at the moment. And although they had a very popular MP, perhaps that's changed now."I am optimistic now - much more so given that Minister Penk has decided not to contest the seat, although, in saying that it is a very blue seat, so there is a lot of work to do."The leadership contest itself could also have an effect.Swinburn said he did not think Christopher Luxon has handled the challenge well.Christopher Luxon speaking to the media after Wednesday's confidence vote.RNZ"Look. I'm sure he has his reasons but I was supposed to be at a meeting last night where Chris Penk was speaking, but obviously [Luxon] called all of his caucus members down to Wellington."I mean, it's a bit of a waste of everyone's time, really. Again, we just wants them to be getting on with it. So calling everyone to Wellington, having this hoo-ha demoting Chris Penk, I don't know, it's just a distraction, so I don't think it's been handled particularly well. I think people are a bit over that."He said he remembered Luxon calling Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori the coalition of chaos, "but it's seemingly within the National Party itself, that's very chaotic at the moment"."Perhaps it will depend on who National stand or put forward to run in the seat but yeah, it's made things more interesting."Swinburn said this was his first foray into politics, having been himself parachuted into the candidacy in the past three weeks after Labour's previous candidate Tracey-Lee Repia stood down."I was thinking that I would be taught a lesson or two by an experienced Cabinet minister ... but perhaps National will select someone that isn't as experienced, so there might be two of us political newbies going for the seat.""Without knowing how the internal mechanisms of the National Party operate, I'd imagine they'd want to get someone in pretty quick smart."He said the electorate was facing several challenges - particularly with flooding, traffic congestion, and residential developments onto greenfields sites being fast-tracked through that would "put a load or a stress onto the water systems and onto the transport systems"."There isn't the adequate infrastructure to cope with this, and the locals are not pleased."As a political candidate Swinburn is currently on leave from his role as a principal policy advisor for the new Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport.