09/10/2025
No surprises here, but I urge you to vote Marie Laufiso #1 for Mayor!
In a nutshell, I have had the great good fortune of getting to know Marie a little bit over the last couple of years, during our work in support of Palestine and local Palestinians. I am still getting to know her and itās a pleasure and a privilege to be around someone with such strength and positive determination. The word we like to use for Palestinians is steadfastness, and Marie certainly has that too.
Though I did find some early mentions on social media that our ticket had been āthrown together at the last minuteā a tad hurtful, there was also admittedly an element of āI resemble that remarkā to itā¦ Not in a barrel-scraping sense (hopefully!) but the haste, definitely. I am very aware of riding on some very massive coattails here.
I can honestly say that if Marie hadnāt talked me into it, I wouldnāt be running for council at large. Truth is, Marieās someone I find hard to disappoint. We were both hoping for a couple of months (Marie no doubt longer!) that some brilliant young tÄkata whenua would run instead. I decided very late, around the time I had a couple of sleepless nights preparing to roast the mayor at council.
That was the order of play, weād had conversations over a number of weeks and interested parties (including Cyndee) had had a sit-down. The decision was squeezed in. There was a flap of nomination forms. A variety show for Palestine at Erickās, where Harriet and Aaron stole the show. Then some dreadful family news meant I was 10 days in absentia in WhÄkatu, right at the start of the campaignā¦ā¦ Iād barely had time to even digest all the implications of running. Not even an announcement to friends.
Yes, I did spend some of that time in Nelson reading the councilās pre-election report and the candidate handbook! But also four days driving and most of the rest of it FREAKING OUT with whanau.
I missed other peopleās election launches. We at BK missed our own. Cāest la vie.
Marie took all this in her stride. She is a stellar human. She does not suffer fools, and anyone who has witnessed her legendary sudden onset of fast, curt retorts and/or challenging/withering eye knows this. She sheer exudes āBring it.ā Itās not disagreable to be forced to locate oneās guts. But she always has her compass honed on the underdog at any given time and thatās what I admire most about her. We are from very different backgrounds, but thereās some promising overlap, mutual respect (as in, we trust each other enough to also speak our minds), and I consider her a mate.
Hereās to you, Marie! Let the good times rollā¦
These are a few pics from the trail.
