Among the volunteers stuffing how to vote pamphlets into their hands was a familiar face.

Mike Rabbitt, the long-time NBN sports presenter who retired in 2014 after almost 30 years on television in the Hunter, is among the candidates standing for the high-profile Newcastle Independents ticket.

Standing as a number two candidate behind incumbent independent councillor Allan Robinson, Mr Rabbitt isn’t supposed to have a chance at being elected.

But those who have watched him interact with voters on the hustings wonder whether a rare below the line election could be on the cards.

One long-time Newcastle political operative told the Newcastle Herald this week that they’d never seen anything like the reaction Mr Rabbitt has received from voters.

“It’s unbelievable, he knows absolutely everyone, and people love him,” the operative said on the condition of anonymity because they’re campaigning against Mr Rabbitt’s ticket.

“People are coming up to him and hugging him, asking for photos, he’s a rock star.”

On Thursday afternoon the Herald spent some time on the pre-poll with Mr Rabbitt, and watched as a stream of voters stopped to shake hands or have a quick chat; a mix of those who know him, have known him, or just recognise him from his time as a broadcaster.

The mix isn’t always obvious, either, because Mr Rabbitt has the ability to be familiar with strangers, and an uncanny facial recall. 

While the Herald watched on Thursday, one man pulled Mr Rabbitt aside and asked whether he still had “the Hawthorn jersey I got you”.

It took about half a click before there was a flash of recognition; “I do, I think I do still have it”.

When the man’s gone the Herald asks Mr Rabbitt how they knew each other.

“Once upon a time I had a bit to do with the Warners Bay AFL Club,” he said.

“That would have been about 25 years ago though.” 

Affable and engaging, it’s easy to see why there’s a growing feeling within the independent group that Mr Rabbitt’s popularity could see him elected below the line. 

And why those who were working behind the scenes to put up a competitive independent team worked for more than a year and a half in an unsuccessful attempt to convince him to run as lord mayor. 

The worst-kept secret in Newcastle political circles is that a group of pro-business figures have been trying to put together an independent ticket to unseat Labor since 2015. 

Danny Buderus was a target. So was former deputy lord mayor Scott Sharpe. But Mr Rabbitt was the holy grail.  

“I have no doubt that he would have won,” one source close to those negotiations said.

“He’s a unifying figure, he’s someone with broad appeal across political lines.”

In fact, the Herald understands that in polling conducted before nominations for the election opened, 42.6 per cent of people said they would vote for Mr Rabbitt, compared to 35.1 per cent for incumbent Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes.

That figure almost eclipses the 43.1 per cent former Lord Mayor Jeff McCloy reached after a long and expensive campaign in 2012. 

In the end though, he decided he didn’t want the job. And, when Mr McCloy made it clear he wouldn’t run again, he decided he wouldn’t run for council at all. 

Finally, he agreed to be Mr Robinson’s number two candidate because, as he puts it, “the wet piece of celery they were hitting me with turned into a two-by-four”.

Faced with the prospect of being accidentally elected though, Mr Rabbitt says he isn’t daunted.

“Look if it did happen I’m ready and willing,” he said.

“I’d just want to be of assistance to whoever was in charge.”

One person who knows about being voted in below the line is former independent lord mayor John Tate.

When he was first elected in 1980 he ran as a number two, and managed to get elected by a 34-vote margin.

He puts that down to “a lot of hard work”, and said it will be a “very tough ask” for Mr Rabbitt to find his way onto the council.

“Given the time he’s had to campaign and the person he’s associated with, yes, I think it will be difficult,” Mr Tate said.

That person is Mr Robinson, the former jockey, who, along with Mr McCloy, controlled the council’s numbers from 2012 until the Operation Spicer inquiry led to Mr McCloy’s resignation in 2014.

Mr Tate doesn’t want to give his verdict on the Newcastle Independents’ lord mayoral candidate Kath Elliott – “I’m not going to tell people how to vote” – but he still hasn’t forgiven the two independents who, along with Mr McCloy, played a role in scuttling the expansion of the city’s art gallery.

“My major interest is the unfinished art gallery [and] it was McCloy and [former general manager Ken] Gouldthorp, aided and abetted by the Liberals and the two independents [Andrea] Rufo and [Allan] Robinson who killed the project,” he said.​

“It’s nothing to be proud of as far as I’m concerned.” 

A mix of conservative-leaning independents, small business operators and former Liberal Party candidates, the independents have replaced the beleaguered Newcastle Liberal Party as Labor’s main challenger at the polls on September 9.

Ms Elliott has sought to control the narrative of the campaign by painting Labor as high-taxing, and arguing that the financial recovery that the council has undergone since 2012 could have been achieved without the controversial 46.9 per cent special rate variation that Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes introduced with the help of the Greens in her first meeting in the job in 2014.

At public forums, Ms Elliott has accused Labor – and Ms Nelmes – of running a “con” on the city, saying they’ve not told the truth about how much money the council needs to collect, and claiming that there is enough income already built into the budget to maintain current spending without further rate increases.

It’s a tried-and-true opposition campaigning strategy; the independents say they will maintain what the current council has promised – plus a few extras like the fast-tracking of upgrades to Lambton pool – while asking for less from ratepayers.

On Friday, they released a graph showing how the average residential rate would change if the independents introduced their plan to cap rates at CPI. Based on CPI figures of 2.5 per cent after 2017 – it was 1.9 per cent to the June quarter – the difference would be about $155 by 2019/20.

They’ve also sought to steer clear of making enemies by hedging on controversial issues like the November Supercars race – Ms Elliott says she supports events like the race, but that she has “concerns” about the route, and isn’t happy with consultation. 

Labor, for its part, says that the independents are “financially illiterate” and “dangerous”, and that their proposals risk sending the council back toward “financial insolvency”.

The council itself has publicly rebutted the claim that it can continue its planned works program without the income from the special rate variation, saying it would leave it with “insufficient revenue”.

Ms Elliott has questioned why the council made the comments to the Herald during an election period, and maintains that there are sufficient reserves to maintain current spending. 

Labor have also sought to muddy the independent label by linking the independents to the Liberal Party. 

While Ms Elliott has never been a member of a political party and describes herself as a moderate who supports issues like same-sex marriage. She also ran John Church’s campaign for the federal seat of Shortland for the Liberal Party in 2013.

Mr Church himself only left the Liberal party the week that he announced he was running in Ward 1 for the independents.

There’s also links to Mr McCloy. As well as Mr Robinson and Mr Rufo, Gillian Summers, who is running further down on the independent ticket, was his chief of staff when he was lord mayor.