General Election - Local Candidates

L.Jenkins

Just thought I'd start a thread to discuss local candidates running for election. None spring to mind yet, as I see posters with relatively new faces. Haven't seen any campaigners knocking around as of yet either.

Addle

We're a cranky electorate.
I don't know how I'm going to vote yet.
It will be interesting to see how Curran's involvement will affect the FF and Naughton results.
Never saw as many posters up before.

L.Jenkins

I drove to Dublin and back this morning, taking part of the old road from Kinnegad to Kilcock and every few hundred meters you'd see posters. I see Denis Naughton is running as an Independent and I may vote for him, unless another, better Independent shows up.

King Mallie

I'm going to vote for Michael Fitsmaurice very good on all local and national issues.
Went to him over issue with coverage issue and he is getting results.

I don't even want to be here, my home is Galway County, (soon Galway City if I get the job I'm looking for!)

But the lines drawn rope my lot in with yours.

Not a fan of the selection, but I like Denis Naughten for my first. This Alan Kelly lad seems to be getting flak in the press, but sure he's Labour anyway, that ship's going down. We have a Renua candidate woman (I forget her name) which I suppose is as close to a new head as you can get without going loony lefty. And the shinners, well, after what happened in Dublin & Gerreh Yaddams insistence that the SCC needs to go, there's no vote to them from me.

Edit: apologies, JOHN Kelly, not Alan

Red Kev

Unless there's a small independent registered, this is the final list that I'm aware of.


Fine Gael

---

Maura Hopkins
Fianna Fáil

---

Eugene Murphy,
Fianna Fail

---

Shane Curran
Sinn Féin

---

Claire Kerrane
Labour Party

---

John Kelly
AAA/PBP

---

Eddie Conroy
Green Party

---

Miriam Hennesy
Independents

---

Michael Fitzmaurice,
Independent

---

Denis Naughten
Renua Ireland

---

Anne Farrell



Naughten and Fitzmaurice are a given. There'll be a fight for the third seat, with Maura Hopkins a clear favourite with the bookies (though I'm not 100% sure myself).

Curran entering late is a hard one to gauge. He'll take some votes off Naughten & Fitzmaurice, but will he get ahead of Murphy when the bottom few have been eliminated. The south of the county is a bit crowded and his GAA connection will help, but on the negative side there are questions over his business dealings and some grassroots FFers aren't happy with him as he was never active in FF.

Murphy is the only candidate in the north of the county and has a good reputation as a community worker. The entry of Curran seems to have made people in the north of the county more determined to vote for him.

Hopkins is young and female, but a lot of people don't think she will put her full weight behind the county. She supports Mayo in the GAA and was on the fence initially about the Westmeath "annexation" issue. Claire Kerrane is likely to take some of her potential floating vote, (female, young, west of the county).

I don't think any of the others, including SF, are in with a chance. Hopkins is the favourite, but I'd put money on Murphy as an outside bet.

Paddy Power has:

Fitzmaurice

---

1/33
Naughten ---- 1/25
Hopkins ---- 4/11
Curran ---- 13/8
Murphy ---- 7/2
Kerrane ---- 5/1

14/1 bar the rest.

nice_guy80

A decent third Independent would nearly get elected on the back of the other two independents

FGs vote will have collapsed since the last election

flazio

A lot of the candidates seem to forget the Galway side of their constituency which means towns like Ballinasloe are free from the Parish pump politics and will be voting on national issues.
Having said that Denis Naughten and Maura Hopkins have made their presence known in Ballinasloe prior to the election being called, Naughten in particular is very vocal about Portiuncula Hospital and Roscommon general.
Going by this article Hopkins also seems to know what the constituency wants, whether she can deliver, as Naughten found out a few years ago, is another matter.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/election2016/election2016-news-and-analysis/maura-hopkins-vows-to-battle-against-prime-land-grab-381898.html

BrianBoru00

Red Kev wrote: »

Unless there's a small independent registered, this is the final list that I'm aware of.


Fine Gael

---

Maura Hopkins
Fianna Fáil

---

Eugene Murphy,
Fianna Fail

---

Shane Curran
Sinn Féin

---

Claire Kerrane
Labour Party

---

John Kelly
AAA/PBP

---

Eddie Conroy
Green Party

---

Miriam Hennesy
Independents

---

Michael Fitzmaurice,
Independent

---

Denis Naughten
Renua Ireland

---

Anne Farrell



Naughten and Fitzmaurice are a given. There'll be a fight for the third seat, with Maura Hopkins a clear favourite with the bookies (though I'm not 100% sure myself).

Curran entering late is a hard one to gauge. He'll take some votes off Naughten & Fitzmaurice, but will he get ahead of Murphy when the bottom few have been eliminated. The south of the county is a bit crowded and his GAA connection will help, but on the negative side there are questions over his business dealings and some grassroots FFers aren't happy with him as he was never active in FF.

Murphy is the only candidate in the north of the county and has a good reputation as a community worker. The entry of Curran seems to have made people in the north of the county more determined to vote for him.

Hopkins is young and female, but a lot of people don't think she will put her full weight behind the county. She supports Mayo in the GAA and was on the fence initially about the Westmeath "annexation" issue. Claire Kerrane is likely to take some of her potential floating vote, (female, young, west of the county).

I don't think any of the others, including SF, are in with a chance. Hopkins is the favourite, but I'd put money on Murphy as an outside bet.

Paddy Power has:

Fitzmaurice

---

1/33
Naughten ---- 1/25
Hopkins ---- 4/11
Curran ---- 13/8
Murphy ---- 7/2
Kerrane ---- 5/1

14/1 bar the rest.

The bookies are rarely wrong but if I was a betting man, I think Murphy is the best price. FG die hards throughout the consituency only have one candidate to choose from.
FF - can t see Curran getting that many votes - he won't get the FF die hards - theyre pissed off about his selection. He'll get some in Castlerea and some in Brideswell. GAA connection will lose him as many votes as it gets him. He's not really that respected, he has profile but thats about it, he would be regarded as a loose cannon and talks an awful lot of hot air.

L.Jenkins

A week to go and I still haven't done my research. I do primarily vote Independents however, but that's no excuse for not doing my homework. I will be looking closely at Michael Fitzmaurice and Denis Naughten.

Renua seem a little too Right Wing for my liking. As far as FF, FG and Labour goes, I think they've left a pretty sour taste in the mouths of Irish People over the last 15 years. The Greens now seem to be small time after their last stint in Government and the hammering they took in the previous GE.

I'll also look at AAA/PBP, as our local Sein Fein Candidate would seem a bit too young to be running with, what I'd see as a pack of Wolves. I am open to researching each Candidate though.

guylikeme

FF wasting their time sending 2 in. I like Curran as a sports guy but like someone said, hes a madman.

FG - Hopkins is young and energetic, but not established and of course FG themselves are in trouble. Ill probably vote for them given that they have myself up money since 2011 overall. Selfish but hey..

SF - Claire clearly the token female for that 30% rule. They know they wont get in this constituency so put her in to make up numbers.

Naughten and Fitz seem likeable, but are very culchy for my liking. Although judging by the polls, they dont need my vote so i wont waste it on them.

All of the candidates dont seem to see the economic benefit of letting Athlone grow as an entity (the boundary issue) which is depressing to be frank.

Jijsaw

According to smartvote.ie, the person who I shared the closest views with (at 45%) was Tony Coleman (Independent). He's decided not to do a poster campaign hence why his name might not be familiar.

His Facebook page is the only means of reading up on his policies but I'm still not 100% sure on him. Naughten would have my vote bar the fact he's not pro-choice and does not consider the Church's involvement in schools relatively-important whereas Coleman does.

I haven't seen anybody out canvasing for him nor heard anyone talking about him so I'm wondering what ye think of him as a potential TD?

https://www.facebook.com/ColemanManifesto/?fref=ts

flazio

Jijsaw wrote: »

According to smartvote.ie, the person who I shared the closest views with (at 45%) was Tony Coleman (Independent). He's decided not to do a poster campaign hence why his name might not be familiar.

His Facebook page is the only means of reading up on his policies but I'm still not 100% sure on him. Naughten would have my vote bar the fact he's not pro-choice and does not consider the Church's involvement in schools relatively-important whereas Coleman does.

I haven't seen anybody out canvasing for him nor heard anyone talking about him so I'm wonder what ye think about him as a potential TD?

https://www.facebook.com/ColemanManifesto/?fref=ts

He's setting himself out as a protest vote. Not all that interesting to be honest.

Jijsaw

^ That was my thought as well. Complaining about what has been done and not really setting out what they actually want done.

I have no clue who'll be getting my No. 1 to be honest!