I apologize for the shocking lack of a blog last night. For that, you can blame the weather and my decision to ingest cough-medicine that would knock out even the most energetic campaigner. Things were relatively quiet around the Arts Block yesterday with the candidates pressing the flesh elsewhere as voting began in St James’ and Tallaght. But today, we got our first taste of the voting rush in the main campus. But the campaigns aren’t quite winding down just yet. There has been a serious push in the last two days to sweep up those last few votes that may prove to be crucial.
Presidency:
And then there was one. It’s starting to look like Ryan Bartlett is destined to be top dog in the TCDSU. With both his opponents removing themselves from the race, Mr Bartlett just has to prove that he is smart enough and charming enough to beat that pesky RON guy. Last night, the race claimed another victim with the charismatic Aaron Heffernan deciding to remove himself from the race. We all knew something was up yesterday when voters in St James’ and Tallaght showed up to vote and Heffernan’s name was crossed out. But, it wasn’t until last night’s hustings in the Ed Burke that we received confirmation that Aaron was stepping down. In typical theatrical fashion, Aaron waited until he had a lecture theatre full of students and Provostial hopefuls before he confirmed what everyone was dreading; his exit from the race. There’s a man that knows how to make an exit. On a serious note he spoke about his pride in the other candidates and congratulated them for taking part. In an aside to the audience, he took the time to denounce the printing of an article about Sebastian LeCocq who was, “so atrociously slandered in some grubby publication.” Heffernan was referring to yesterday’s edition of “The Piranha,” which ran a particularly abrasive about the former Presidential candidate. At the end of his speech he simply said “Vote Ryan Bartlett Number 1”, at which point the crowd burst into rapturous applause and gave him a standing ovation. You can watch his speech here.
So how is Bartlett going to convince the student body that he deserves the office? The next few days are going to be absolutely crucial as Ryan faces questions of mandate and legitimacy. “RON for SU Pres” groups are starting to pop up around Facebook, although by early numbers it seems that Bartlett has little to worry about. Readers, it is not often that this blogger agrees with Declan Harmon but, “Bartlett has run a workmanlike campaign – competent but not outstanding.” He may have been the most competent man in the race from day one but he was definitely the Nixon to Heffernan’s JFK; hard-working and sincere but lacking his opponent’s “showbiz” panache.
Ents:
There was a week of heavy campaigning and sleep-deprivation, and then there was a restful weekend, although plenty of candidates managed to make it to DUBES’s Bess Ball on Saturday, the prospect of 1,200 potential voters in one hotel ballroom evidently too good to miss. Now that the candidates have caught up on their beauty sleep, there doesn’t seem to be a lot going on. Campaigning has obviously been curtailed now that the voting has begun on the main campus. The only reason that our Ents reporter, Jack Toner, knew that there was an election going on today was the voting table and the campaign t-shirts they were wearing under their jackets and sweatshirts. It seems the only way to gauge candidate popularity is by the triangular patches of either black or blue above student’s hoodie zip.
While the candidates are nervous, and no one is quite sure as to where the vote will lie, it hasn’t stopped them from throwing a party. Tonight, perhaps coincidentally, our candidates are both hosting club nights. Elaine is “giving students what they ask for” with BYOB at the Mezz, a night which demonstrates her collaborative ents policies. Chris is giving trinity students free in to D2 tonight, although the Facebook page of the event now says it’s over-20s only, and one COC supporter left a message saying “over 20s? thats practically a retirement party… us wee little 1st years will have to find our entertainment elsewhere. might wear the coc t-shirts to the mezz- make a little controversy ;)”. Still, his €4 naggins are still available from two off licenses. Hilariously, the perfect combination is to bring some of COC’s 4 euro naggins to Elaine McDaid’s BYOB. Can anyone say two Ents officers next year?
Communications:
Despite being promised by Costello that he’d cool it with the ginger shit this week, it seems that he’s moved on to a much more sinister campaign strategy. What could be more sinister than the idea of a “ginger army,” you ask? Well Ronan’s “Vote or Die” campaign seems to answer that last question quite well. Is it possible that if I do not vote for Ronan then the Ginger army will kill me? I’m not sure you get this whole “hearts and minds” thing, Ronan. Regardless, Ronan’s heavy-campaigning last week have done enough to put him streets ahead in the latest UT poll.
Eleni has been hard at work the last two days. She got off to a flying start this Monday with a stunt at 1pm in the Arts Block which saw her get in touch with her inner diva. Along with 5 of her campaign team girls and 6 lads from the American Football club who were surprisingly light on their feet, they pulled off a fairly impressive rendition of “All The Single Ladies”. An interesting affront to the usual Valentine’s mush clogging up the Arts Block yesterday.
Education:
This race has once again taken a turn for the ugly. Yesterday, the two candidates gave a lecture address in St James’. Rachel went first, outlining her manifesto and her policies followed by John Cooney who proceeded to accuse her of nepotism. Rachel’s father is a lecturer in St James’ and Cooney told the audience that he wasn’t ,”[in St James’] looking for votes from family connections.” He continued with along this track for two to three minutes according to an infuriated Rachel. Rachel told us, “He was accussing me of not being able to secure votes myself. I wasn’t even going to mention the fact that my Dad was a lecturer. This is negative campaigning coming from Cooney directly. It’s completely consistent with the other remarks he made about me… This isn’t enough for the students and I would appreciate it if the race could go back to policies. I’ll be speaking to the EC and remind them of his previous comments.”
Well, it looks like I may have called it wrong, folks. This race hasn’t gotten boring yet. The claws are back out and the EC is having to, once again, get involved in a race that is supposed to be as boring and lovey-dovey as the Welfare race. This has gone beyond the entertainment factor now. These candidates need to get a grip on themselves sooner rather than later because they are both starting to lose respect my respect and the respect of a lot of students across the college.
If you noticed a severe lack of Cooney around the college today you weren’t alone. John has apparently taken ill in the last 24 hours and is entering hospital tomorrow. This is definitely an inopportune time for the engineering student to get sick but I have been assured by a spokesperson for John that, “there is no doubt about whether he will remain in the running or not.” We wish John a speedy recovery.
Welfare:
Well done Welfare candidates; you’ve officially overtaken “watching paint dry” as the world’s most boring spectator sport. Possibly the most interesting thing to come out of this race was seeing Darren O’Gorman fall up the stairs of house six yesterday. It appears that after a day of heavy rain, canvasssing was held to a minimum today. All candidates seem to be looking towards tonight’s hustings in Halls as the final stage from which they can project their ideas. Well lads, I will personally buy a drink for the candidate that can use the phrase, ” I agree with my opponent,” the most. As you can see I’ve given up on trying to make this race interesting.
To be fair, the candidates have fought remarkably clean campaigns and as I have said before, I have every confidence that we are going to have a great Welfare officer next year. But for Christ’s sake lads, couldn’t you have made my job a little less boring? No? Ok.
So the landing gear is out and we are ready to touch down after nearly two weeks of vanity, paranoia, mud-slinging, negative campaigning, arguments and reconciliations, stunts and a veritable (metric) fuck-tonne of bear mascots. In roughly 48 hours it’ll all be over and you’ll never have to hear from me again. But tomorrow is another day and another day of hard work for our remaining candidates.
