Today may have been a dull one on the campaign trail, but it didn’t stop a few of our formerly frosty races from heating up just a little bit. On top of this, our first poll results are in and if you haven’t seen them already you may be in a bit of a shock. Most of the races are fairly tight but there are one or two, particularly the one-on-one races, where candidates are clearly storming ahead. Our team of roving reporters were on call today in the arts to block to shadow all of our favourite shameless self-promoters as they scrambled for votes. So lets have a look at the polls.
Education:
After hustings yesterday, I never would have thought in a million years that the Education race would have got as interesting as it has done in the last 24 hours. Rachel Barry has taken 54% of the vote compared to John Cooney’s 32% (with 14% of students preferring to vote for this RON character, i.e. None of the above). But the intrigue in this race comes not from the disparity in the poll but more from the strange rumblings coming from the camps. Remember last night when I said that Rachel had been fined because of her over-zealous campaigner? Well, it turns out that the campaigner may have a bit more zealous than we had inititally thought. The truth is that one of Rachel’s campaigners was caught suggesting that John Cooney “touches kids.” For this, Rachel had ten t-shirts taken off her last night. Obviously it was just a throw-away remark but the EC still took it quite seriously.
The truth is that Barry owes her success in today’s polls to a stellar performance in halls last night. Rachel reportedly held several miniature rave parties, complete with glowsticks, in students’ flats and apparently the reaction was very strong. With the mud-slinging beginning to pick up and both candidates expressing disappointment in the other one’s “negative campaigning” the Education race is beginning to sprout legs. Wednesday is going to prove interesting.
Communications:
Ronan “The People’s Ginger” Costello seems to be pulling ahead after the first lap of the course after polling 33 percentage points higher than his rival, Eleni Megoran, in today’s poll. Ronan has managed to convince 60% of the 405 students who were polled by this newspaper while Eleni is lagging just a bit at 27.6%. This seems to be in line with what was the general consensus among students yesterday. His performance in halls last night and the heavy presence of his army of Ginger-ites in the arts block have worked in the 4th year Law student’s favour. Eleni admitted to our Communications reporter, Rory O’Donovan, that being in the spotlight is something that she’s still getting used to, but she seemed happy with the feedback the campaign’s received so far. She pulled off one PR coup today by getting Rugby captain (and Aaron Heffernan body-guard) Scott Lavalla to wear one of her t-shirts. While Eleni needs to pick up the pace, Costello needs to remember that this race is a marathon not a sprint.
Presidency:
Newsflash to Sebastian LeCocq and Ryan Bartlett: you guys are being schooled by an Obama impersonator! If I may be permitted to employ a terrible pun, this joke candidate is clearly nothing to laugh at (Editor’s note: leave the jokes to the comedian, chump) Aaron “Air-Force 1” Heffernan is polling a mere two points lower than heir apparent, Ryan Bartlett. With Bartlett at 41.8% and Heffernan at 39.9%, this race is starting to look interesting. Heffernan doesn’t appear to need a huge presence in the arts block. He doesn’t need to be constantly forcing the literature down our throats. He just needs to pop his head into front square every now and again and talk about his policy of “de-cobble-ization;” in other words, his plan to send Trinity’s cobble-stones to China and Africa. His every move is documented on his very popular Facebook page by his campaign team. Nothing but compliments about his Facebook and his campaign materials can be heard from students in the arts block. One student went as far as to say that Heffernan’s materials are the best in the entire election. Sebastian LeCocq is bringing up the rear at 10.3%. Le Cocq told the University Times that he had been spending most of the day making lecture addresses and will be supporting the nursing students tomorrow. “I have been addressing lectures nearly every hour on the hour, I will also be supporting the nurses tomorrow for their strike and will spend some time in D’Olier street tomorrow with my team”. I wouldn’t be surprised if Heffernan has overtaken both of the other candidates by the end of the week.
Ents:
This race is tighter than a clever analogy. Watching the poll results come in today, CO’C was pulling slightly ahead of McDaid. In the last few hours, Elaine must have found her mojo because she has stolen 47.8% of the vote compared to Chris’s 45.2%. The interesting thing is that when we asked students which of all the candidates had impressed them the most, Chris topped the poll. Clearly, Chris’s stunts have been attracting attention. Chris thinks that his success is down to “the lack of fun” in Elaine’s policies. He says that “She is a politician, not an entertainer.” He has been quite flippant about his opponent. Upon being invited to discuss Elaine’s policies by our Ents reporter, Jack Toner, he asked, “who’s Elaine?”
He still won’t really explain how he plans on implementing his off licence deal of the week, he just tells us that he’s defiant. Well Chris, defiance won’t beat the college alcohol policy which states that alcohol can’t be advertised by the SU. Elaine may be more politician than entertainer, but students seem to be responding to the tangibility of her ideas. As our Ents reporter, Jack Toner said,
“O’Connor has a lot of the attention at the minute, and our poll shows that the dramatic work he’s done has payed off. The response to his campaign has been “massively positive” according to himself and his campaign manager. We will be watching Elaine very closely tomorrow to see if she remains calm and reserved in light of Chris “don’t believe the hype” O’Connor’s statements about her campaign. Perhaps the the cocky CO’C has spoken too soon in dismissing his opponents ability to bring the ruckus, bring some student attention, and bring some votes. For now the big, red, shiny Ents ball is in Elaine’s court.”
Welfare:
The welfare race got off to a slow start and to be honest it has continued at this pace. Louisa Miller is topping the polls with 43% of the vote, 13% above her next nearest rival, Darren O’Gorman. Other than the standard arts block schtick, none of the candidates have really been up to much. Caroline spent the day in St James canvassing and Russell expressed his disappointment with the hustings session yesterday outside the dining hall. I honestly wish there was more to write about but this race is still in production.
In general, I wish we had more for you today but I think that the candidates were conserving their energy for the first day of stands tomorrow. Rest assured, our team of reporters are going to put the candidates through their paces tomorrow. It’s going to be an interesting day, folks.
Ian Curran-SU Election Editor.
Reports By: Jack Toner (Ents), Ciaran Nolan (Presidency), Gavin McDermott (Welfare), Leanna Byrne (Education), Caelainn Hogan and Rory O’Donovan (Communications)
