SYLVIA Connolly is the woman trying to shake off the shadow of Ray Mallon.

It falls, dark and long, across the Labour Party in Middlesbrough and it is breaking up the old tribal allegiances which once ensured Labour would win almost anything it wanted in the town.

"I have to say that he poses a real challenge because he has a very high media profile," she says. "But I don't know what Ray Mallon stands for, apart from Ray Mallon, and I think very few people in Middlesbrough know either. I think he's selling Middlesbrough people short. Middlesbrough people are entitled to know what all of the candidates stand for, including him."

She pronounces the name of the town "Middles-bro", as a good Teesside lass would, as opposed to the "Middles-bra" adopted by most outsiders. She was born in Stockton, but moved over the River Tees into Thornaby when she was two and came into Middlesbrough was she was 14.

"My dad was a plasterer who ran his own building business," she says.

"He was a Conservative, a working-class Tory. He had quite strong views, but he moved politically as he got older.

"My mother eventually became a Labour voter."

She became a Labour supporter as a sixth-former in the 1960s, "but it was only in the early 1990s that I become actively involved.

"I wanted to do my bit to get a Labour Government elected. In 1992 it ended in tears but we did advance and winning was within reach. Then the hard work for the 97 victory started."

In 1995, she and her husband Geoff both became councillors. "When you're an activist, there's a lot of political debate but it's different from actually going and doing something. As a councillor, I felt I could put something back into the community."

She's now deputy council leader and Commissioner for Resources. "It sounds a bit dry," she admits, "but I steered the Service Middlesbrough partnership through the council, and it has been a major achievement. We're making £2m savings every year for the ten-year contract, and that's going back into education, social services and the environment."

For someone who has risen so far, so quickly in such a town in such a party, there is a surprising lack of a Machiavellian streak in Mrs Connolly. Perhaps she just hides it well, although beneath her personable - almost timid - demeanour, there's a determined side. Having brought up two daughters, she returned to full-time education to study law for seven years.

"I had to get the 6.30am train to Newcastle and I would be getting home at seven at night," she says. "The children were 12 and ten and my husband was a teacher. I depended upon the support and help of him and my mother. Those winter mornings," she shivers.

"I still remember them."

She qualified as a solicitor and is now a senior law lecturer at University of Teesside specialising in public law, the constitution and civil liberties.

"I didn't expect to become a solicitor," she says. "I just felt I wanted to find out what skills and abilities I had, and how far I could stretch my talents. To my amazement I achieved it, and I believe very strongly in lifelong learning. Many students at Teesside are mature ones.

"They often don't have the confidence when they first return but as they pass their exams you can see their self-esteem building."

She believes that a strong mayor will work to build the esteem of the whole town. "We're struggling with data like three of the ten most deprived wards in the country are in Middlesbrough, there's a loss of population, a fall in school numbers. A mayor can be strong in advancing these issues to Government. If they don't listen, I will bang on the door and shout a little bit louder."

She hints that the election is more than just local people choosing a local leader. The mayor of Middlesbrough could evolve into a figurehead for all the Tees Valley.

"A town like Middlesbrough has got to have a high profile leader," she says. "It's a sub-regional centre. We are looking to create a regional atmosphere here."

In battles to come with Newcastle over regional government, Teesside will need a strong voice.

At the moment, though, she's concentrating on the local battle.

"If we are going to have a vision for Middlesbrough in five years time, to make it a better place, it is about improving people's quality of life," she says.

"We want a place where people feel safer in their homes and our young people achieving above average passes in their GCSEs, where more of them are going to higher education. I want people to have pride in Middlesbrough."

Somehow, though, she has to ensure that in the forthcoming campaign, she is not overshadowed by her major opponent