Local Elections 2009

Gulamugas

Heard inda kenny today on "waterfords most listened to radio station":mad: saying that he feels confident that pat barron will win a fourth seat in the Tramore electoral area. any views? it wold have to be extremely good vote management, but not beyonds the bounds of possibility

Sully

Why the angry face?! I believe he was in Super Valu the other day also. Id love to see Pat get in, seems like a very enthuastic chap. I think county is tough to call.

That Independent candidate for Europe, the chap with the picture beside the Regionals Tower in Waterford.. hes around the town at the moment (or at least a jeep driven by him is).

Gulamugas

Was looking for a yawn one but none there.
Would barron be well known in the town?

Stan Nangle

Gulamugas wrote: »

Was looking for a yawn one but none there.
Would barron be well known in the town?

I know Pat Barron more than 20 years and he'll make an excellent Councillor.

He is based in the same parish as Pat Daly, so he will do damage to his core vote.

I reckon he'll be in the mix for a seat.

Gulamugas

Stan Nangle wrote: »

I know Pat Barron more than 20 years and he'll make an excellent Councillor.

He is based in the same parish as Pat Daly, so he will do damage to his core vote.

I reckon he'll be in the mix for a seat.

Interesting

But he will still need a big chunk of town votes so where does he get them? He is not really known in the town except in some small circles. Haven't seen him about at doors or anything but then i suppose if the 3 FG town candidates who ae not running for the county were to ask their personal voters to vote for hm he could collect a lot of votes that could do it for him. I smell vote management here, fair play if that what they are at.

Is he a Deasy man?

Gulamugas

So Stan, at this stage would you like to predict the seats

I think that

Anne Marie
Lola
John Carey
Paddy O C
and Daly
are dead certs.

Now 2 to fill
if barron gets those Tramore votes then he has to be in the mix with Conway and yourself and maybe blaise

Sully

I think people who lived here a long time would know him. He would be very well known around the town as would his family. He had family in the town at one stage IIRC. New people, maybe not so much.

He has been canvassing in the town, but I guess things are slower as he has a massive area to cover running for county.

Sully

I see a new election poster up today, VERY small. Its tiny. Its got the Labour colours, with a very small party logo I couldn't make out. Its either FF or the old FG logo, don't think it matched any other party. It was so small that I couldn't really make out the name and the picture which looked very grey.

Who would pay to get that type of design done? Or get that small a poster printed? :S

Gulamugas

whose poster is it or could you not make it out

Sully

Gulamugas wrote: »

whose poster is it or could you not make it out

Hard to make out but to stab a guess.. The new ex labour candidate for FG. Tho, its usually ff with the small logo so I'm not to sure.

Gulamugas

I saw them yes they are hers, very hard to make out and very grey

Sully

So a canvasser for Pat Finnerty was up at the house today and pointed out a video on this website from him;

http://www.micandidate.eu/patfinnerty

It addresses the whole going back to FF rumour spread by other candidates. He also brought up the issue with the removal of mature trees in the Tramore Heights/Roselawn area - apparently the council gave no notice and just cut them all done leaving stumps behind.

Sully

A Political Lesson

By Ciaran Murphy

Friday, May 22, 2009

A WATERFORD schoolboy may be about to hand one of his teachers a painful political lesson by beating her at the polls.

Even though Tom Raine starts his Leaving Certificate in just two days, his name is on the Fine Gael ticket for Tramore Town Council – alongside that of sitting councillor Ann Marie Power, a teacher at Tramore CBS, where he is a pupil.

It was actually Ms Power who advised the 19-year-old from Newtown Glen to run for the council. Fine Gael has three seats in Tramore and is hoping to increase it to five this time round.

Ms Power said she is "100% behind" her student.

Tom moved from Worchestershire in Britain four years ago with parents Ian and Vicky in order to be closer to his maternal grandparents.

Yesterday he was coping with the pressure by spending his days studying for his exams and canvassing for votes in the evenings.

The precocious political wannabe said: "My Leaving Cert begins on June 3, which is two days before polling day.

"Obviously this will be a very demanding week for me but a robust study plan has been devised that’s based entirely on the demands of the exams.

"During the day, I am in class and completely focused on my studies and then after dinner we’re out knocking on doors.

"That might seem like a long, hard day, but I have youth and energy on my side and, critically, I have huge support within the Fine Gael party."

One of the young candidate’s bugbears, in terms of secondary school education, is the use of prefabricated buildings as classrooms. "The rent on these is phenomenal. From a personal point of view, to be in a proper building gives you a different perspective on education," he said adding there should be a "national campaign to show that politics is not all about what’s on TV".

"It is also about what is going on in the community. I think young people have great ideas," he added. "Young people are interested in politics; we just have to make it accessible for them.

"Some people think I’m doing the wrong thing, but 99% of people are behind me."

With Leaving Certificate and elections out of the way, he hopes to study business studies and economics at the Waterford Institute of Technology

Source: http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/a-political-lesson-92382.html#ixzz0GF2y9c1R&B

We discussed the above a little while ago. He has his posters up, but for some reason never went with the offical design from HQ and instead got the small ones two other FQ candidates also went with (the new candidates). Cant say I like those posters at all... they seem pointless as there very small.

Psychedelic

Sully wrote: »

So a canvasser for Pat Finnerty was up at the house today and pointed out a video on this website from him;

http://www.micandidate.eu/patfinnerty

It addresses the whole going back to FF rumour spread by other candidates. He also brought up the issue with the removal of mature trees in the Tramore Heights/Roselawn area - apparently the council gave no notice and just cut them all done leaving stumps behind.

According to that site he lives in Roselawn which explains why he's on about the trees, but you think he would take that opportunity to talk about more important matters affecting the whole town rather than the estate he lives in. Not sure if I believe his leaving Fianna Fail thing. But he's an alright guy, spoke to him a few times, not sure what he can get done for the town so probably won't vote for him.

Jim_Are_Great

If cutting down four trees is his biggest issue, I don't know what he's at.

Gulamugas

Anyone see joe conways canvas card? Certainly reads well looks like he has been busy for the last 5 years. Sure he will win town seat, how about the county though?

Sully

Gulamugas wrote: »

Anyone see joe conways canvas card? Certainly reads well looks like he has been busy for the last 5 years. Sure he will win town seat, how about the county though?

Is it like a 4 page leaflet? Bluesh, picture on front? I cant see him having any problems locally and should get into council without much hassle (perhaps not as easy, up against tough competition). Hard working candidate who is well known, did great work as major for the town - should have no issues.

Seem to see a few FF posters from names I do not recognise (apart from Joe O'Shea). Had to laugh at some covering part of members of the same party election poster. The smaller ones for the new FG candidates which cropped up are terrible IMO. Far to small.

Jim_Are_Great

Gulamugas wrote: »

Anyone see joe conways canvas card? Certainly reads well looks like he has been busy for the last 5 years. Sure he will win town seat, how about the county though?

Thinking about it, I can't see him having many problems in the county. He has had a lot of publicity in the local papers over the past few years, and he's cetainly one of the candidates who stands out most in my mind. Without the party transfer machine, it's going to be slightly tougher for him, I suppose. But there are people contesting the county that are far less likely to poll well than him, though. I think.

Sully

I got that leaflet today, very good. Also came with a letter. Seems both before the campaign and during he has been very busy and has been working on a number of issues including the main Tramore road (alongside Stan Nangle of course), the ladies slip and the state of the ORR in Tramore.

Stan also called, was good speaking to him. An honest hard working chap, despite been a GP candidate :P I honestly think that himself and Joe would be two of the hard working candidates for the town but sadly he may just find it tough. I would hate to see him loose a seat to another less "caring" candidate but most people vote by who you know and the party. Joe has so much under his belt which is what makes the difference for him.

Sully

Getting lots of complaints about the state of Tramore beach over the last few days. Rubbish all over the beach, same on the pier. Also, lots of dogs and those who require the face masks and leads not in use, all of which are illegal. Seems that nothing is being enforced in the town.

Hopefully this is something our town council and county will look into and address it. The last thing we need is tourism being further damaged and people being turned away from the town because of its apperance. Even bins over flowing because there was lack of funding. Important areas that seem to be overlooked.

Stan Nangle

The rubbish from Saturday still hadn't been picked up this morning. It was shocking down there this morning.


I'm going to refrain from further comment.

Sully

Stan Nangle wrote: »

The rubbish from Saturday still hadn't been picked up this morning. It was shocking down there this morning.


I'm going to refrain from further comment.

No doubt we will have a repeat of a certain member of the town council (not running for election, I dont think) rejecting the claim that the beach was dirty and people he spoke with on a visit agreed with him. :rolleyes:

Gulamugas

Dan is good at defending the ciounty council workers all right.

Traditionally there was a moratorium on canvassing the day before an election. Joe O Shea must be making up for lost ground, he has been knocking on doors since 10am this morning!

Jim_Are_Great

Legally speaking, the ban is solely on media advertising. Canvassing is kosher, though I'd say the number of people who don't have their minds made up at this stage is small.

Gulamugas

Yes jim I understand the legal side of it but traditionally it was generally accepted by candidates of all parties that the day before as a no canvas day. You used it to make last minute tidy up of posters etc and give the electorate a day off cause as you say they probably have their mind made up anyway. Certaainly any candidate that would call to my house on the day before would lose whatever scratch they were going to get.

Sully

Joe just canvassed here. Thought some of his campaign points were interesting;

I promise to Campaign for the following:

New Schools for:
The Holy Cross
Gael Scoil Philib Barun
Glor Na Mara

The improvement of Road and Road signage throughout the county. To bring more retail units to Tramore. The provision of sheltered housing for our aged population. To continue my father campaign for provention of coastal erosion and the preservation of the Sandhills

Can Joe actually promise new schools? Isn't that more of a Dept. of Education issue with regards to planning, funding etc? Reminds me of a member of the Workers Party in Waterford promising more teacher/pupil ratio in Waterford.

Also, Joe Conway was out dropping leaflets/canvassing today (I think) - spotted him and the family above the old Maxol garage there with leaflets.

Lots of candidates in Waterford doing leaflet drops also. Not sure if they are canvassing or not.

Psychedelic

According to your quote he said he promises to campaign for new schools, not that he promises to deliver them. But yeah, seems like all the politicians pre-election promise to deliver everything we want, whereas in reality all they can do is try.

I'd love to see what the current councillors promised before the last local election and measure it up against what they actually delivered.

Off the top of my head, the only positive things I can think of that were delivered in the last 5 years are: water treatment plant up & running, industrial estate developed, skate park down by the prom, South knocked down. But then you have to look at the things not delivered or poor decisions: Tramore Road, that thing outside the library, one-way system not implemented, frequently littered beach.....

Sully

What I meant was; can a local councillor really have that much an effect on government policy in relation to such a big project? I wasn't sure if that's an issue that any councillor could really work on compared to other more local issues which relate to local funding?

Jim_Are_Great

From what I saw, nearly every last one of the candidates were out canvassing/leafleting today. I was called on by five (who I won't name in case it affects Gulamuga's vote:p), and I saw a couple more driving around. I wasn't upset by it. In fact, I'm glad when people make the effort to call. Far more courageous than just dropping in a meaningless leaflet or, worse still, not calling at all. None of the candidates who failed to call to me will be getting any preference whatsoever from me.

Gulamugas

Thanks Jim, you may have saved them from my wrath, that is if they were going to get a scratch in the first place. Just called me old fashioned, i suppose.

so anyone prepared to make predictions now that all the canvassing is over, or is it?