The Conservative brand at the moment is toxic so both Houchen and Turner are trying to distance themselves from central government, both have said ignore Westminster and concentrate on local issues, which is a cowardly and disingenuous tactic given that neither have resigned from the Party who they are trying to disassociate themselves from and the part, especially in Houchen's case, they have played in creating the mistrust and toxicity surrounding the Tories.
Houchen's campaign is based around the twin misconception's that the airport and freeport are essential and that Labour have done nothing for the area, both of which are blatantly untrue.
I've yet to read a coherent defence of Houchen's time as Mayor, as every metric he relies on shows failure or mismanagement, he talks of job creation yet there are slightly fewer jobs in DTV than when he took over, he has a budget almost double that of the combined local Council's in his area and has borrowed half a billion pounds during his tenure but says that Council's cannot be trusted with managing finance, the Airport is subsidised to the tune of millions a year whilst bus routes that many people rely upon daily are axed due to being 'unaffordable', and on top of that you have the absolute shambles that is the Freeport, built on a lie and continuing through dishonesty, secrecy and cronyism.
The problem is that the truth is called talking the area down, if Houchen doesn't get re-elected he has threatened to take his ball away in an act of typical childlike petulance, and many of his supporters are now cultists who believe he can do no wrong, other Parties need to be more proactive in promoting their candidates and be clear on what they are going to do for the area, to show that politicians are not all the same, sure be critical of Houchen's many mistakes but offer something irresistible in return.