Brian Paddick is enjoying running for Mayor of London.
The Liberal Democrat candidate may be a distant third in opinion polls, but he has one distinct advantage in this race – lots of people know who he is.
The 2008 Mayoral election is already the most exciting contest since the post was established at the turn of the century.
Incumbent Ken Livingstone is facing a concerted (some would say co-ordinated) barrage of negative press on everything from cronyism to his alcohol intake.
After eight years of his rule London's main newspaper, the Evening Standard, has gone into anti-Ken overdrive.
The election is further enlivened by the presence of one Boris Johnson, the Tory candidate. He is no stranger to the press or the voters.
A journalist, broadcaster, columnist, scallywag and sometime Member of Parliament, he has been happily knocking lumps out of the Mayor and banking on his unique personality appealing to London's voters.
Faced with those rivals, even the most exceptional third party candidate would struggle to make his voice heard.
Paddick, who is 50 in April, does not have a track record as an elected representative, only rejoined the party he now represents two years ago, and he talked to the Tories about the possibility of representing them.
So why would not one party but two want him to run for Mayor? As a career Metropolitan police officer, he first came to the attention of the press over cannabis policy in the London borough of Lambeth.
For operational reasons, he took the decision as borough commander to concentrate resources on hard drugs. That meant cautioning instead of arresting people caught with amounts of cannabis small enough to be considered for personal use.
The fact that he was openly gay only gave the right-wing press more to be unhappy about. His career at Scotland Yard proved even more controversial, and he earned a reputation for honestly over the Jean Charles DeMenezes affair.
His account of when senior police officers knew that the man they had shot at Stockwell tube station in July 2005 was not a terrorist but an innocent electrician was at odds with that of the Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair.
It is no secret that Paddick had professional ambitions beyond the role of Deputy Assistant Commissioner, but he left the force at that rank in 2006, after 30 years service in the Met.
When asked about his lack of experience as an elected official, he claims:
"In terms of politics, there is nothing more political than the eighth floor of Scotland Yard."
He says that running for Mayor has allowed him to speak more freely than he ever could in uniform.
"It is a bit like being a senior officer again," he says of the campaign.
"Morning, noon and night it is TV and radio and newspaper interviews, so I am very comfortable with it. But it has the bonus that I can say what I want.
"It took a while for me to convince myself that I wasn't going to get hauled in front of the Commissioner every time I gave an interview, which was the situation it had got to in the police.
"So it's quite liberating. I am in my comfort zone.
"If Ken and Boris keep taking lumps out of eachother like they are now then I might be the last man standing."
This morning's Mayor of London hustings, organised by Stonewall, was packed - nearly 400 people were there to hear Ken, Boris, Brian speak alongside Sian Berry from the Greens and Lindsey German from Respect - The Left List.
