The Press won't like this...

We blogged yesterday afternoon about The Press' poll on the Christchurch mayoralty; the one where they used an unflattering photograph of one of the candidates.

We just checked the poll's progress, and a strange thing has happened; check this out:

When we first saw this poll, Liane Dalziel led Bob Parker by around 20 percentage points. That has turned around completely overnight, and the current mayor now has a strong lead over the MP.

For what it's worth, we reckon that Bob Parker deserves another term as Christchurch mayor. Sure; he has made mistakes. But he has also been faced with a crisis the like of which no local body politician in New Zealand has ever faced, and he has worked unceasingly. His commitment to Christchurch cannot be faulted. Things would be very different in Christchurch had Jim Anderton prevailed in 2010.

This poll result is indicative only, but we suspect it's not the result that The Press was hoping for when the poll was posted online. Perhaps it will be a wake-up call to the editorial stuff to ensure that their coverage of the campaign is fair and balanced, and that the editorial preference for one candidate over the other is not displayed so graphically.