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Keeping it local
Read more about: Blogging, Dublin North West, Irish Election, Irish Election 2007 
Any floating voters in Dublin North East may be interested in the results of my little local experiment.
The constituency is quite broad in that it extends from Howth and Sutton to Darndale and Coolock. I am in the Darndale/Coolock end of the constituency and I had hoped to be proved right that all our candidates would personally canvas our area.
Himself believed otherwise and challenged me that only Larry O’Toole of Sinn Féin would come to the door as he has somewhat of a strong following locally. He was almost right. I blogged the view from my doorstep as it were and the results were poor.
I also took two local issues that are close to my heart (the lack of accessible buses on our route and the lack of adequate public health services in the area) and e-mailed them to each candidate along with a request to convince me to give them my vote. I only recieved three replies – David Healy of the Green Party, Keith Redmond of the PDs and Dr Michael Woods of Fianna Fáil.
The replies helped me to determine the order of my voting preference which goes to show the importance of personal contact and awareness of local issues when trying to gather votes.
The results and correspondence can be found here.
I would agree, the level of canvassing in DNE is terrible. Dr. Michael Woods team of OAP canvassers knocked today at 4.20pm (tuesday; weekday 17 of the campaign, ie. the last real canvass day). So where were the others? David Healy was here before the sunday dash to the park by Bertie. If children could vote it would be David Healy TD! the man with the folding bike! FG Flanagan’s sister called but again like Healy it was soft canvass before the election was called and without register or recording board. Our door bell is wonky but we see all door step activity.
I’ll tell you where they are. Waiving at traffic. I have not seen this but on more than one occasion I have been told that in the a.m. FG candidates are waving at cars as a ‘be seen’ exercise. Somebody video this please. Location Dublin Road / Kilbarrick Road Junction. With canvass not ‘ins’ passing 40% will future campaigns be blighted by this gimmickery ?
does anyone remember marching bands of majorettes when the PD party launched itself? they toured railway stations and performed marching maneuvers for the shocked on lookers. perhaps those days are returning as the PD’s boat leaves our shores.
a really good idea, and well executed by embar. Not quite as nasty as the doorstep challenge though.
Also a DNE voter, Howth end of things.
Our canvass:
Michael Woods – a run-through, leaving others to discuss points of detail, of which I had a few. In last week of campaign.
Martin Brady – not seen, canvassers called one mid-campaign.
Brody Sweeney – called around in early days of campaign. Stopped to discuss. Also seen extensively in Howth market, Superquinn Sutton
Terence Flanagan – called 2 or 3 times during campaign. Stopped to talk, but not very au fait with some issues. Also called repeatedly in 12 months before election. Full marks for effort. Also at DART station mid-campaign.
Tommy Broughan – called mid-to-late campaign, took time to discuss issues. Also at DART station late campaign.
Keith Redmond – canvassers at DART station late campaign. No sign of ccandidate.
David Healy – seen at Howth market at his desk. Didn’t canvass house.
Larry O’Toole – not seen, no canvassers, bar one leaflet drop.
Baldoyle end of constituency Lots of leaflets from all the canditates. No sign of Michael Woods, Larry O’Toole. Martin Brady stood outside of the church, but best of all I have had those two Fine Gael men wave at me twice this week as I made my way to work. Did they expect a wave back or a vote? No sign of the folding bike or David Healy. Labour canditate not seen even on poster here
I’ve been feeling practically stalked by FG’s Terrence Flanagan, at least five doorstep canvassings since January. Then last night a photocopied letter was dropped in the letterbox from the other FG candidate, Brody Sweeney. The gist of it was: It is down to me or SF’s O’Toole for the last seat, put me before Terry (good kid that he is). He was only there to boost my vote.
Multi-seat contituency politics is a cruel ole world.