Flashback: The battle for the Gold Coast mayoralty in 2008 as Tom Tate fought Ron Clarke

MAYOR Tom Tate is no stranger to a political battle. And this time he found himself in the middle of one of the biggest spats the city has seen.

GOLD Coast Mayor Tom Tate has returned from a brief holiday fired up over his push to sink a warship off The Spit.

The big-budget project moved a step closer to reality this week as the Mayor signalled the council would be prepared to put millions more of funding into the tourism infrastructure.

His latest push comes 10 years to the week since the then Chamber of Commerce boss announced he would have a tilt at the city’s top job.

Tom Tate and his family at home launching his 2008 tilt at the mayoralty.

The 2008 mayoral election was not the hotel owner’s first crack at city hall — he was unsuccessful in 2000 in a campaign during which he announced a policy of holding an hour of public question time before council meetings.

But after sitting out the 2004 cycle he declared the next time was going to be different.

It was late January 2008 when Cr Tate made his announcement.

Kevin Rudd was the new prime minister and was a dominant figure in the nation’s scene, actor Heath Ledger had died just a day earlier and excitement was growing for the year’s Olympic Games in Beijing.

But despite being a conservative and Liberal Party member, Cr Tate decided to take a page out of Mr Rudd’s book with a Labor-inspired campaign.

Then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd signing a Kevin 07 shirty shortly after taking office.

Running on a Liberal-Party ticket, the candidate unveiled his own answer to the iconic Kevin 07 campaign — Tate 08.

“‘Kevin Rudd said he was a typical Queenslander with a message and I’m saying that I am a true blue Gold Coaster with a message for change,’’ he told the Bulletin at the time.

‘‘It is a bit weird to see a 3.5m picture of my head up there but I’m getting used to it.’’

It was already a crowded ticket — incumbent Mayor Ron Clarke had defied expectations of a retirement to announce he would once again contest the top job while Cr Rob Molhoek declared his ambition, unveiling another Liberal-inspired ticket known as Unite GC.

Rob Molhoek. launching his UniteGC campaign for mayor.

Other candidates including former federal MP John Bradford and Elvis impersonator Dean Vegas would also come out of the woodwork.

Mr Molhoek also took some inspiration from Mr Rudd, showing of his own ‘Rob 08’ branding on some campaign material.

The gloves came off early during the campaign when Mr Molhoek made the stunning claim that Cr Clarke slept through some council meetings.

Mr Molhoek described Cr Clarke as “a well-known snoozer” and said he had slept through important meetings leading up to the council budget.

Mayor Ron Clark in early 2008.

But in a return serve, Cr Clarke said the only meetings he slept through were chaired by Cr Molhoek.

‘‘He has got to be kidding himself. He has made this campaign nasty,’’ the Mayor said at the time.

Cr Clarke would go on to win the election, defying predictions that the Liberal Party ticket would succeed.

But it was a case of third time lucky for Cr Tate who went on to win the mayoralty at the 2012 election and was returned again in 2016.