Local Elections 2014: What issues will you be raising with candidates on the door?

Grudaire

MammaZita wrote: »

Paul Donnelly was the only candidate that knocked on my door. Whether or not you support his party, he is the only local candidate that actually works and has a presence in the community outside of election time.

He's never knocked on my door..

You'll find that a few (definitely not all) candidates are active outside of election time. But they do focus on their 'core' areas. Paul Donnelly thinks he can get votes where you live, but not where I live, other candidates feel the opposite.

Grudaire

Leroy42 wrote: »

Another issue is that on many of these media 'walkalongs' during the campaign the candidates seem to visit a lot of estates during the day,so out of 20 houses they might to a response from 5. I assume they can then say then knocked on everyones door, but why not do things in the evening, etc.

Just seems to be that they avoid the public, they state that they want to act for the public!

I think most candidates do their 'media' stuff during the day so they can get sunny pictures and during unproductive time as it's time consuming. Saving the real canvassing to evening time.. But that's just guesswork!


Out of curiousity have you ever gotten in contact with your local politicians on any issue? Part of the reason I helped out with Roderics campaign is that many moons ago I emailed all TDs and a few hopefuls, and he was the only one who got back and actually answered the question. Most didn't even respond.

folan

January wrote: »

If I based my voting preferences on that I wouldn't be voting. Not one person called to my door, and I was here all the time cos I have a newborn to look after...

thats shocking. how does anyone expect you to support them in a local election when they cant make the effort to talk to you

MammaZita

Grudaire wrote: »

He's never knocked on my door..

You'll find that a few (definitely not all) candidates are active outside of election time. But they do focus on their 'core' areas. Paul Donnelly thinks he can get votes where you live, but not where I live, other candidates feel the opposite.

Well I'm not aware of any of the other candidates doing anything for my local community over the last 3-5 years. If they have they've been very modest and have not had a visible presence. Certainly not the areas surrounding me (Clonee/Ongar/Clonsilla/Hartstown).

folan

zero SF knocked on my door. And if any leaflets were dropped in, i never saw any

Pat Dunne

MammaZita wrote: »

Paul Donnelly was the only candidate that knocked on my door. Whether or not you support his party, he is the only local candidate that actually works and has a presence in the community outside of election time.

I live in the adjoining estate to him and in all the time I have lived here he has never called either during or outside of the election campaign. The only leaflet I ever see from him are during election time.

MammaZita

Pat Dunne wrote: »

I live in the adjoining estate to him and in all the time he has never called. Or dropped in a leaflet outside of election time.

That's shocking

Godge

MammaZita wrote: »

Paul Donnelly was the only candidate that knocked on my door. Whether or not you support his party, he is the only local candidate that actually works and has a presence in the community outside of election time.

Have never seen Paul Donnelly involved in anything.

A SF presence in the community isn't always a good thing.

Godge

Leroy42 wrote: »

It strikes me as really odd behaviour in relation to the canvassing. Whatever about leaflets, surely a candidate gets more out of meeting the people and being able to get across his/her ideas. I have only had one TD call to the house in the last 5 years (a few months before the last election) and tbf he took the time to listen to what I had to say and made his arguements.

How can people vote for someone they haven't even met? If they didn't bother to even visit you why do you think they will bother trying to work for you?

Another issue is that on many of these media 'walkalongs' during the campaign the candidates seem to visit a lot of estates during the day,so out of 20 houses they might to a response from 5. I assume they can then say then knocked on everyones door, but why not do things in the evening, etc.

Just seems to be that they avoid the public, they state that they want to act for the public!

Your expectations are completely unrealistic.

http://www.bap.ie/dloads/Dublin-15_Socio-Economic_Area_Profile_2009.pdf

According to this the population of Dublin 15 is 90,000. Assume 65,000 are voters. For a candidate to meet every single one of those and spend 15 minutes talking to them to learn about their concerns would take 16,250 hours. Assuming eight hours a day on the campaign trail, that would require 2,031 days. Assume five days a week canvassing for 40 weeks of the year, it would take ten years for the candidate to spend 15 minutes with each voter.

It wouldn't leave much time for doing the job they are elected to do.

People complain about politicians a lot but what do they really expect?

Leroy42

Godge, I agree it is unrealistic.

however, to be visited by 1 candidate in 5 years? The rest didn't bother, or even by their support teams? We are being asked to vote for parties and yet the parties/candidates never look to meet us.

How about doing some surveys? They say they are speaking for the community but seem to also be interested in that every 5 years

MammaZita

Godge wrote: »

Have never seen Paul Donnelly involved in anything.

A SF presence in the community isn't always a good thing.

Local GAA, suicide group, drugs action, education, elderly, health, unemployment, as well as assisting our residents association in resolving a dispute with the builder who built our housing estate when our appeals to other parties and candidates were largely ignored.

If there's anyone else locally who has done as much in my area I wish Id known before I cast my ballot this morning.

Godge

Godge wrote: »

Have never seen Paul Donnelly involved in anything.

A SF presence in the community isn't always a good thing.

He's been to every Safer Blanchardstown meeting in Mulhuddart.
Hasn't come to the door though, saw him, Mary Lou and Edmond Lukusa in the Blanchardstown centre. Why they waste their time there when half the people aren't in the constituency is beyond me. It's irritating because I had a few questions that I wanted answered both as a resident and as a student/part-time worker.

KGLady

We had a few 'Candidate is in the estate would you like to speak to him/her' but they were mostly evenings and himself deflected them before I knew who it was at the door. Paul Donnelly called during the day and I had a long chat with him and he struck me as being a sincere, dedicated and informed on issues both local and national, I would have huge issues with his Party and I never have voted SF and swore I never would - but he really gave me reason to question that stance and I have yet to vote so I may still give him a preference. Similarly David McGuinness has impressed me through the campaign but I cannot stomach FF - however I figure both those candidates are likely to be more in the running for the Bye Election over the Local. In terms of the local, Margaret Richardson also called in one afternoon and so I politely told her I don't vote FF but wished her luck. Her reaction to my well wishes seemed ... surprised and it did make me pause to wonder what kind of reception she was receiving elsewhere.

Godge

MammaZita wrote: »

Local GAA, suicide group, drugs action, education, elderly, health, unemployment, as well as assisting our residents association in resolving a dispute with the builder who built our housing estate when our appeals to other parties and candidates were largely ignored.

If there's anyone else locally who has done as much in my area I wish Id known before I cast my ballot this morning.

I would not vote for FF but David McGuinness and Mags Murray would be at least equally involved in the community.

Hearing of SF and drugs action brings back unhealthy memories of vigilante type action in the 1980s, as for resolving disputes with builders, I wonder how that conversation went.

LoonyLovegood

Godge wrote: »

I would not vote for FF but David McGuinness and Mags Murray would be at least equally involved in the community.

Hearing of SF and drugs action brings back unhealthy memories of vigilante type action in the 1980s, as for resolving disputes with builders, I wonder how that conversation went.

I've never heard of Murray doing ANYTHING in the community, unless it's coming up to election time.

MammaZita

CTYIgirl wrote: »

I've never heard of Murray doing ANYTHING in the community, unless it's coming up to election time.

Same here- have never heard or seen her outside of election time.

MammaZita

Godge wrote: »

I would not vote for FF but David McGuinness and Mags Murray would be at least equally involved in the community.

Hearing of SF and drugs action brings back unhealthy memories of vigilante type action in the 1980s, as for resolving disputes with builders, I wonder how that conversation went.

Well PD is actively involved in assisting addicts get the help they need- more power to him- unlike the other candidates he's a grafter within the community and not afraid to get his hands dirty. In relation to taking on a major developer, he arranged for legal representation.

athtrasna

MammaZita wrote: »

Well I'm not aware of any of the other candidates doing anything for my local community over the last 3-5 years. If they have they've been very modest and have not had a visible presence. Certainly not the areas surrounding me (Clonee/Ongar/Clonsilla/Hartstown).

I live in Castleknock LEA but even I know of the work David McGuinness has done for the community in the Mulhuddart ward. And I'm not a FF fan!

CTYIgirl wrote: »

I've never heard of Murray doing ANYTHING in the community, unless it's coming up to election time.

MammaZita wrote: »

Same here- have never heard or seen her outside of election time.

+1 to these. She does nothing, thinks she'll get in on name recognition alone. I tried to email her to get her to take down her illegal poster in our estate but her email kept bouncing back. I'm certainly not a fan of hers and would have been tempted to actively vote against her this morning but there were so many names on the ballot paper it was just too much hard work so I only gave a few preferences.

Hilly Bill

MammaZita wrote: »

Unfortunately we only had one caller where I live.

If someone were to call now I'd ask them how they intend to deal with the antisocial behaviour of drug addicts in the Ongar area, terrorising local people. Two separate incidences involving 3 different addicts 2 weeks ago (one in a housibg estate, the second outside a primary school). Anyone know is the methadone unit still in Mountview or where these people are coming from?

Any drug addiction problems in Ongar has nothing to do with Mountview.

Hilly Bill

Kiwi_knock wrote: »

It takes some doing by a candidate for me to give them a lower preference than the FF, FG or Labour candidates in this election but Mary Martin has accomplished it with her "Womanifesto". Words can not even explain my feelings towards it.

Same here. Strange that there was no mention of that on the ballot paper. If i hadnt have seen her posters then i could have given her one of the lower preference instead on nothing like i did.

December2012

There are some candidates who held "public meetings" which I think is a valid substitute for going door to door.

The socialist party were out in Ongar tonight with the loud speaker asking people specifically to vote for them. Which, had I not already voted would have put me further off them

Kiwi_knock

From Adrian Kavanagh on Twitter.

Tally figures for Castleknock at present have FF 30%, FG 21%, GP 12%, SF 8%, LAB 6%, OTH 13%

Looking as if Fianna Fail doing well in Castleknock at #LE14 with Jack Chambers polling well. Good vote also for @rodericogorman of Greens

Unless they do better in the final group of boxes in Castleknock, it looks as if the Labour seat is lost there #LE14

conor-mr2

FF at 30% .. what short memories we have!

Kiwi_knock

Final tallies.

Fingal Castleknock tally, 100 per cent. FF 27 FG 20 Lab 5.4 GP 10.20 SF 13.95 AAA 7.2 DDI 0.9 IND 12.7 PBP 2.2

Chambers FF top poll on 18.7

Fingal, Mulhuddart 100pc tally: FF 13.3 FG 13.4 Lab 9.44 SF 30.08 AAA 26 IND 6.18 PBP 1.54

Mulhuddart council tallies for candidates also running in Dub West by-election: Donnelly (SF) 27.12 Coppinger (SP) 21.58 McGuinness 11.45

Kiwi_knock

First Count from Mulhuddart

Fingal Mulhuddart first count: Donnelly SF (3201 first pref) Coppinger AAA (2568) McGuinness FF (1360) all elected. Quota 1305

LoonyLovegood

More than slightly disgusted about Chambers showing so well. However, I can't see him being transfer friendly

Kiwi_knock

Dreadful vote management by SF and AAA in Mulhuddart.

Donnelly, Paul (SF) 3201
Coppinger, Ruth (AAA) 2568
Mc Guinness, David (FF) 1360
Dennison, Kieran (FG) 876
Mc Camley, Mary (Lab) 582
O'Donovan, Michael (Lab) 506
O'Callaghan, Philip (FG) 428
Nolan, Lorna (Ind) 355
Lukusa, Edmond (SF) 353
Cooper, Frederick (Ind) 226
Mc Grail, Maria (FG) 225
Hughes, Annette (AAA) 215
Richardson, Margaret (Ind) 213
Rynne, Bernadette (AAA) 187
Bayliss, Louise (PBPA) 185
Casey, Dermot (Ind) 149
Keenan, Jimmy (AAA) 115

Zaph

Kiwi_knock wrote: »

Dreadful vote management by SF and AAA in Mulhuddart.

Four AAA candidates was just ridiculous, but I guess they were hoping the Coppinger bandwagon would drag them along with her.

Kiwi_knock

Castleknock. Chambers (FF) and Treacy (SF) elected. Quota:1749. Roderic and Loftus will get in as well. The transfers of Chambers and Treacy will be important. Shocking performance by sitting councillor Waine, outpolled by his running mate.

Chambers, Jack (FF) 2613
Treacy, Nataile (SF) 1953
O'Gorman, Roderick (GP) 1393
Loftus, Eithne (FG) 1070
Leddy, Ted (FG) 973
Walsh, John (Lab) 782
Murray, Mags (FF) 721
Minogue, Henry (FG) 671
Martin, Mary (Ind) 647
Kavanagh, Sandra (AAA) 591
Mac Manus, Edward (FF) 498
Clare, TJ (Ind) 473
Lyons, Sean (Ind) 444
Waine, Matt (AAA) 435
Uludah, Memet (PBPA) 306
Casey, Dermot (Ind) 162
Long, Robert (DDI) 145
Kidd, John (Ind) 113

Hilly Bill

Its a farce to be honest. If SF or the Socialists wins the By-election will a candidate that finished down the order in Mulhuddart get the Fingal seat instead if the relevant candidate wins in that election as well?