Leo Molloy

The restaurateur says "household political names" are joining his team as he runs for Auckland mayor.

“It’s a pretty gritty sort of campaign and it takes a toll on you – it takes a certain resilience – I’m pretty robust,” said Molloy. “He is doing well in the polls and is now at another stage to get to the finish line – I wish him well and he will always be a good friend,” she said. “It's been a privilege to be involved with the Leo Molloy campaign – it's been three months for me and I think my job is done,” said McCabe

On the latest episode of New Zealand Today, Guy Williams dedicated more than half of a 22-minute episode to Leo Molloy and his Auckland mayoralty campaign.

Whatever Williams’ intention was in featuring Molloy on his show, the outcome is that Molloy won, in every sense. Williams was clear in his stance against Molloy, but didn’t connect the good optics of a comedy show appearance, no matter how combative, for a mayoral candidate. But Williams was insistent that the segment would have a negative impact on Molloy’s campaign, as he intended. We went back and forth on how a segment on a show that rates well and regularly gets hundreds of thousands of views on Youtube and social media may impact a local election campaign. Williams is the host of a comedy show airing on prime-time television, and I watched his segment with Molloy genuinely unsure what his aim was in filming it. The segment was funny and Craig said some outrageous things, and then went on to be revealed as a particularly bad person. I suggested that it could be viewed as the two of them being in on the joke together, given the multiple settings and Molloy filming scripted elements. “I just thought the interview was so wild that that would be viewed on its own merits. At one point in the segment, Williams himself ponders, “Am I actually helping him?” I was wondering the same thing. If the segment had ended there, perhaps we would have ended with a net neutral: fans of Molloy loving his callousness and detractors being reminded of his reputation. It was a cycle that, in hindsight, worked effectively as a publicity campaign for a candidate who was looking for the votes of the exact people who loved the offensive remarks. Molloy appeared on Williams’ show and spent a large portion of the time being ridiculous and offensive.

Auckland Mayoral Candidate Leo Molloy appeared on TV 3's comedy show New Zealand Today last night, and not everyone is laughing. The talk could be seen as.

A bizarre appearance on TV3's New Zealand Today last night has confirmed Leo Malloy does not have the credibility, temperament or capacity to lead and ...

“Time for Mr Malloy to limit his energy and language to the hospitality trade. They have remained dignified and talked about the issues, rather than for example raising Mr Molloy’s history of bankruptcy whenever he holds forth about his business track record.” “Voters have already seen it.

Businesswoman June McCabe told the Weekend Herald tonight she stepped aside as the campaign chair by mutual agreement on Wednesday but remained a friend and ...

They are just chaff blowing in the wind. Later on Newstalk ZB, Molloy denied making disparaging comments about Brown: "I quite like the old fella. The others are irrelevant. "Just at the moment he's not trying to be a comedian, he's trying to be a mayor," Brown said. It's completely unacceptable. It's got no place at all.

Auckland mayoral candidate Wayne Brown says rival Leo Molloy's “bizarre antics, short-temper and foul-mouthed rants” during an appearance on a satirical ...

It’s like Wayne has hired a bunch of second rate podcasters from The Spinoff and is surprised it isn’t working. There is a reactionary resentment vote in Auckland who view the ‘progress’ as gridlock and the Left’s inability to present a vision to counter that has allowed a huge populist reactionary momentum that isn’t Left or Right to build. Molloy laughed off Brown’s call, describing his rival as “a dead man walking” and said it was Brown who should hold up a “white flag” and surrender from the race.

Auckland Mayoral hopeful Leo Molloy has lost a key figure in his campaign team just days after an explosive interview. Businesswoman June McCabe told the ...