Photo-Dargan Crowley-Long
We’re only halfway through campaign week and students are already starting to use phrases like “running away with it” and “whitewash” to describe certain races. We at the University Times would like to remind students that the general mood among candidates after last night’s UT poll was that anything could happen between now and polling day. So let’s hold off on the speculation and look at the facts.
Presidency:
The presidential race has made it to the top of my list of the most interesting races. All hands were truly on deck today as Bartlett and LeCocq made their PR pilgrimages out to St James’ in support of the nurses’ protest while Heffernan preferred to stay on campus to supply his voter base (and certain un-pledged journalists) with a few bars of comedy gold.
Photo-Dargan Crowley-Long
So what were the reactions from the presidential camps to last night’s poll? Speaking just minutes after the results of the poll were published, while canvassing Trinity Hall, Bartlett’s campaign manager; Daniel Ferrick said he was somewhat surprised at the closeness of the race. “I am quite surprised that we are that tight to Aaron”, however Bartlett claimed it was early days and said that Heffernan was helping the elections in general; “I think that Aarons campaign will help publicize the SU elections more, it is getting more people interested. However, it is only early days it’s not the first two days that matter it is the last two, I am happy however that we are ahead in the first days and we have more planned to help increase our lead”. According to one campaigner for Bartlett, the team was shaken up a bit by the poll. He told us that they have committed themselves to, “working and campaigning harder over the next days to get Ryan elected”. The candidate in third place, Sebastien LeCocq was quite dismissive of the poll, and said that he knew nothing about it so could not get his supporters to vote, he also said he was quite surprised that the favorite to win had such a small lead, “I wasn’t informed that this poll was even going on, I do think it is quite interesting that the odds on favorite to win is only 8 votes behind the perceived joke candidate. The poll has not worried me as it is only early days, but it will spur me on to fight for better results in the actual election”.
Photo-Dargan Crowley-Long
Aaron Heffernan spent the day running around the campus with his entourage delivering several hysterical lecture addresses in the process. Followed by his “advisors,” Huw Duffy and Barra Roantree carrying an American flag, Aaron marched to the arts block to deliver an impromptu lecture on international politics. Aaron was much less forthright about last night’s poll. When asked what he thought of the polls he said he had walked into one on Dame Street while walking home last night. His “official” opening of the Book of Kells and his address to a first year BESS lecture went down a treat as students laughed all the way through the lecture at the thought of Heffernan’s absurdist speech in which he stated that 16% of all English speakers also think in English. The campaign team behind Aaron Heffernan are very impressed with their poll position, only a mere 8 votes behind perceived front runner Ryan Bartlett, Matt Smyth, campaign manager with Heffernan’s campaign said they were delighted with the poll; “We are flattered by the poll results, we just hope that everyone is having as much fun as we are.” Believe me Matt, we are.
Ents:
Elaine McDaid clearly heard that the CO’C didn’t like her “no fun” campaign. The answer, was Glee. Performed twice in the arts block and then the Hamilton, Elaine was surrounded by her t-shirted posse and the music of “Jump” (the Glee version) as she danced around making a delightful mess. While both performances attracted a crowd and definitely attained some recognition, it all felt very familiar. Chris himself said that the flashmob “reminded him of something.” He’s right that it wasn’t very original but it still attracted a crowd in both the Hamilton and the arts block. After one enthusiastic campaigner did a back-flip off a vending machine, Elaine was asked to kindly leave the Hamilton, proof that it’s not a PR stunt unless someone can get in shit with the po-lice (hyphen intended). Well not the police but definitely the college security! Elaine has shown her fun side today, but the shock factor of these stunts will become less and less valuble as the election progresses. but in her own words; “it’s more important to have a message than an image”.
The day wasn’t all Glee and Fatboy Slim, however. In a lecture address today, Chris opened with his usual statement that he wasn’t going to talk about experience, just ideas. The lone voice of Elaine McDaid reverberated through the room; “you could talk about it if you had any experience”, an aspect of Chris’ campaign that she feels she has the upper hand on. This is clearly the battleground on which this race is going to be fought; Chris’ fun ideas Vs Elaine’s “realism” and experience. Tensions are high in the race regardless of what the candidates are saying about negative campaigning. On the policy front, Elaine has assured us that she has been offered a “contract” by a travel agency for the European mystery tour if she gets elected. This was exciting news and we were assured that we would be sent a copy of the email that Elaine received from the agency. As of nine o’ clock this evening, no such email has been forwarded to the University Times. Chris is not without fault either. After challenging his European mystery tour ambitions in last night’s blog, Chris accused me and our Ents reporter Jack Toner of bias. We asked for confirmation of his communication with Ryanair on this matter so we could temper our suspicions of exaggeration but, as in Elaine’s case, no such confirmation has been received even though he promised us an email this morning. As Jack implied yesterday, seeing is believing guys. Chris also had some slight EC trouble last night also in an event which he sincerely deemed a misunderstanding. The EC took issue with the fact that on Tuesday, Chris and some companions in bear suits got their YMCA on outside the Hamilton. Now while Chris had applied for and attained full permission from the EC to perform the stunt they claim that he never said he would be including bear suits. They deemed this to be worthy of the punishment of removing ten t-shirts from his campaign. The punishment seems a tad excessive and is not the first example we have of the EC enforcing rules to the max of their abilities for questionable things.
Education:
Well, it looks like I was right, readers. This race is just getting weirder and weirder and it looks like it’s going to continue on this fashion for a while. More accurately, it’s going to get funnier and funnier. After the rather feeble and ridiculous allegations made by one of Barry’s campaigners that John Cooney “touches kids” (still funny by the way), the latter has apparently taken a leaf out of the Barry book of how not to sling mud. Rumours were flying around the Hamilton this morning that Cooney’s campaigners were alleging that Rachel has, shall we say, a fondness for beverages of an alcoholic nature. Cooney initially went along with the consensus that it was just campaigners taking the mick but then admitted to Rachel that he actually made the remark. Rule number one of making stupid suggestions about your opponent: try not to actually admit that you yourself suggested that he/she has a drinking problem. Rule number two: don’t make ridiculous allegations in the first place. John has apparently received a warning for this and has confirmed to this blogger Hunter S. Thompson’s famous statement that, “when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” Yesterday, after Rachel was fined for the misconduct of one of her team members, it seemed plausible that her huge team of campaigners may have been dragging her down a bit. Today, it seemed that Cooney didn’t need a huge team of campaigners to make a massive cock-up; it seems he just needs himself. Watch this race for pure entertainment value.
Communications:
Photo-Dargan Crowley-Long
In this race we have two candidates who are apparently ignoring the poll results. Ronan said that he wasn’t letting himself get too excited about last nights poll victory and added that the results are never scientific. Eleni seemed up-beat today and possibly on the best form that we’ve seen her all week. She was defiant in the face of her defeat in the poll last night and said that she was just going to have to be more visible to the average student. She did complain that the UT didn’t give her enough notice about the poll so she could get her people to vote in it (communication win). Both candidates pitched up in the Hamilton today, each with a unique PR stunt for their voters. Costello had a giant photo of his ginger-haired logo with a chair placed in front of it upon which students were invited to sit and get there picture taken in a ginger wig. What did the Carlow-man call this stunt? Ginger snaps! The idea apparently broke the ice in the Hamilton and Costello received a warm welcome after that. Eleni had a slight advantage in the alien world of the Hamilton. She had 6 enthusiastic science students on her team who helped get the ball rolling with her Hamilton campaign. The atmosphere around her campaign was quite festive today. She was involved in face painting with the students on campus and personally went to St James’ to meet with the nurses. She also went to D’Olier street to meet with nurses there. A self proclaimed, “Facebook nerd,” Eleni like Costello assured us that all the photos and videos she took of the protest will be up online tonight. Today, both candidates got down to some proper campaigning and it certainly was good to see. We want more.
Welfare:
If this race was any slower, it’d be in reverse. All four candidates have yet to identify their unique selling points and it’s starting to look like a race of clones. So similar are the candidates that actually all did the same thing today by going out to the nurses protest and they all gave more or less the same quotes as each other on the topic; all commented on the “genuine sense of anger” among the nurses. Possibly the one interesting thing to come out of the race today was Russell Bryce’s statement to our Welfare reporter, Gavin McDermott, that Welfare is a political role that needs to be treated as such. He says that Ireland has become a lot more politically active in the last few years, and that whether we like it or not, politics gets the job done. Even though last night’s poll placed him firmly in third, I refuse to write this guy off. He may be the only candidate capable of differentiation in this race, with his firm knowledge of and interest in politics. My advice? When you got it, baby, flaunt it! So today was a little more exciting than yesterday. Tomorrow, our candidates will continue with the stands and they will continue to be grilled by the student body. And now for an obscure reference to an American poet that no one has ever heard of. As Carl Sandburg said, “A politician should have three hats; One for throwing into the ring, one for talking through, and one for pulling rabbits out of if elected.” I’d ask students to keep that in mind when they are talking to there candidates tomorrow. Tune in tomorrow; same bat-time, same bat-channel.
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) Photos By: Dargan Crowley-Long (Unless otherwise stated.)
