Yorkshire devolution: Who's in the running for mayor's job?

The voters of Hartlepool twice re-elected Stuart Drummond - who ran for office in the guise of football mascot H'Angus the Monkey

So who will be putting themselves forward to take on the job of executive mayor in the new devolved regions?

In Yorkshire speculation is growing despite no clear agreement on exactly how many regions or mayors will eventually emerge.

Will the front-runners be established politicians, business leaders, celebrities or even individuals so far totally unknown to the public?

In fact, on past political history, all of the above are in with a chance.

That is because the one thing we do know is that whoever finishes up with the keys to an executive mayor's office will have to win an election and that has sometimes produced unexpected results.

H'Angus the Monkey proves the point.

In 2002 Stuart Drummond, who dressed up in costume as the club mascot of Hartlepool United, decided to run as a candidate for the brand new post of executive Mayor of the town.

With an election slogan of "Free bananas for all school children" he saw himself very much as the joke candidate.

When the votes were counted it turned out that the electorate had the last laugh as H'Angus won.

It is a classic case of how very low turnouts combined with the unfamiliar proportional representation electoral system used to elect executive mayors can lead to quite unexpected results.

Executive mayors, including Boris Johnson in London, as well as the other 15 currently running towns or cities across England, are elected using the "supplementary vote" system.

The ballot papers have two columns allowing voters a first and second preference.

If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote on the first preference then the top two go through to a run-off round.

That is where the second choices of the supporters of all the unsuccessful candidates come into play.

Any of these "supplementary votes" in favour of the two still left in the competition are then added to their totals and the winner is the one who comes out on top.

Voting tight in run-off

It means that if the turnout is very low even candidates with little previous political experience do not need to persuade many voters to get them past the winning post.

In H'Angus the Monkey's case it took well under 6,000 first preference votes to squeak him into the run-off a mere 1,500 second preferences to put him in office.

On that basis several relatively obscure independents have won elections to be executive mayor of the towns and cities which over the past 16 years have held referendums to switch to that form of administration for their local council.

However, most of the elections for them have been fought on traditional party lines and a mayor wearing the rosette of one or other of the major parties usually ends up making the winner's speech after the count.

That is highly likely to be the end result in Yorkshire when the elections scheduled for 2017 take place for this new generation of executive mayors of devolved regions.

In fact, the current struggle across West, North and East Yorkshire to decide exactly how many regions and what their boundaries will be is because there are concerns that traditional Labour or Conservative councils might find themselves lumped in with a region where the "wrong party" dominates.

So what sort of candidates and winners can Yorkshire expect?

In the one area where a deal has been agreed by nine neighbouring authorities - the Sheffield City Region - Labour traditionally has huge majorities.

As a result the most common names being bandied about as mayoral contenders are the party's local champions for devolution such as Sir Steve Houghton and Julie Dore - the leaders of Barnsley and Sheffield City Councils respectively

If a Leeds City Region is agreed, taking in the industrial West Yorkshire councils, the City of York and a few smaller authorities across the border in North Yorkshire, then a mayor with a red rosette is expected.

Wakefield City Council leader Peter Box could be a strong contender.

If "Greater Yorkshire" emerges as a devolved region, which includes Conservative-controlled North and East Yorkshire, a Conservative mayor would be more likely.

Former Hull MP has hinted he might be interested in the post of Greater Yorkshire mayor

But genial Labour veteran Hull MP Alan Johnson told a recent edition of BBC Sunday Politics that he might "consider throwing his hat into the ring" in an election for a Greater Yorkshire mayor and there are those who believe personality might overcome politics if he did.

As for celebrities? Well that has happened from time-to-time in the United States but there do not appear to be many Yorkshire versions of Clint Eastwood or Arnold Schwarzenegger available.

Gary Barlow was declared an honorary Yorkshireman at a recent awards ceremony he attended in the county, but even the social media conspiracy theorists have not read too much into that.

But stranger things have happened.

H'Angus the Monkey's alter ego Stuart Drummond shed his costume after becoming mayor and was twice re-elected.

The voters of Hartlepool, however, could only take the joke for so long. In 2013 the office was abolished after a referendum and the town is now run by a conventionally-elected council.