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Mayor Sam Sullivan will be the man to beat in next year's Vancouver elections.

The board of the Non-Partisan Association has approved nomination rules that will probably spare Sullivan, as well as other incumbent elected civic officials, from having to fight off challengers for spots on the party's slate in the 2008 election for council, park board, and school board.

NPA president Matthew Taylor said he wouldn't describe these rules as "incumbency protection". Rather, he prefers to have them depicted as part of a "green-light process".

"When the board was putting together these nomination rules, the board was focused on the fact that the NPA elected officials have worked very well together as a team," Taylor told the Georgia Straight . "What we want to be able to do is ensure that we have experienced people going forward in the next election so that they can better represent the citizens of the city."

Earlier this year, the Straight asked Sullivan if he expected another tough battle for the NPA's endorsement in the 2008 election. When he sought the party's nomination as a mayoral hopeful in 2005, Sullivan pulled off a surprise victory over former deputy premier Christy Clark.

"I haven't put any thought towards that," Sullivan said in a January 17 interview. "But certainly, that is an option. I'm taking things step by step."

Sullivan has publicly announced that he will seek reelection and has started raising money to bankroll his campaign. The city's two main civic opposition parties–Vision Vancouver and the Coalition of Progressive Electors–have yet to agree on whether or not they'll join forces for the coming election, much less name a common mayoral candidate.

A few hours before the Straight spoke with Taylor on September 17, a number of NPA elected officials said in separate interviews that they were not aware the party has already adopted nomination rules for next year's election.

NPA park-board chair Ian Robertson, for one, noted that the NPA caucus within the board had, in fact, opposed protecting incumbents. "We unanimously supported not having incumbency protection," he said.

Robertson said on September 17 that he has yet to be informed about the rules. He noted that NPA officials in the park board had sent a note to the NPA board, recommending that everyone who wants to get the party's endorsement must go through a nomination process.

"We feel that the strength of the NPA has been, and will continue to be, its ability to attract the best and brightest," he said. "We also believe that we should be held accountable to our own party for the years we've been in office."

Members of the NPA caucus in the school board said they were also out of the loop, although they hadn't put down in writing their position on how the party's nomination should be run.

"I haven't heard anything," NPA school-board chair Ken Denike said. "I don't know if we're going to do this as a school board."

In an interview earlier this month, Denike told the Straight that the NPA traditionally has hotly contested nominations. He also said that it's not surprising for some incumbent officials to want a free nomination ticket because "incumbents are generally pretty busy and…you don't have an awful lot of time to get nomination things going."

NPA politicians on the park board aren't the only ones against the move to protect incumbents. According to school-board trustee Don Lee, some members of that board want all civic positions opened up for nominations.

"A better way to go is to try to be more inclusive and give everybody an equal chance," Lee said. Like Robertson and Denike, he said on September 17 that he wasn't aware of the NPA board's decision on the nomination rules.

NPA councillor Suzanne Anton talked with Taylor before she gave her comments to the Straight . "Whatever they decide is fine with me," Anton said. "I don't really mind. We're a pretty tight caucus; we really like each other. We work closely together. I really hope all my colleagues get reelected."

Taylor explained that the NPA board will appoint a "green-light committee" before the end of the year to receive applications from incumbents interested in running again. This committee will then review the record of the applicant and make a recommendation to the board, which can endorse the candidate at the NPA's annual general assembly in April 2008.

Party members will be asked to approve candidacies in an open vote, although Taylor noted that the NPA board's endorsement will carry a lot of weight. Asked if Sullivan has the party's endorsement in the bag, Taylor said: "To the extent that you have people with experience such as the mayor, the board is behind those people and that will certainly work in the mayor's favour."

NPA members who want to run in civic slots not taken by incumbents will have to slug it out among themselves. "We will hold an open nomination contest, likely in June 2008, to fill out the team," Taylor said.

A few months ago, Chinese-language posters expressing support for Coun. Peter Ladner as an NPA mayoral candidate appeared in Chinatown, fuelling speculation that he will challenge Sullivan for the party's mayoral nomination. Ladner, however, has publicly maintained that he's supporting the mayor.

Like Anton, Ladner told the Straight that he can live with whatever the NPA board decides on the party's nomination rules. But he noted that he would have preferred open nominations. "I think I believe in the principle that the membership decides who the representatives of the NPA should be," Ladner said. "I would have preferred that they had made the decision that the members decide."