Following the failure of Independent contenders Gareth Sheridan and Maria Steen to secure nominations for the presidential election, the three remaining candidates began to focus in earnest on canvassing and media engagements this week.
All have assembled experienced backroom teams and they are beginning to plan campaigns for a three-horse race. Not all are complete yet but most of the key personnel are in place.
Heather Humphreys
Fine Gael
Fine Gael was the earliest to put its team in place and that team has remained the same despite the disruption caused by a change of candidate, after Mairéad McGuinness stepped down for health reasons, to be replaced by Heather Humphreys in September.
The team’s director of elections is Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon. Former government press secretary (and former broadcaster) Chris Donoghue has been brought in to run the media campaign.
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Pauric McPhillips has been seconded from Tánaiste Simon Harris’s office where he has worked as a special adviser to take charge of policy research.
McPhillips is a long-time adviser to Humphreys. He began his career in politics straight out of college, working as a parliamentary assistant to the Cavan-Monaghan TD in 2011 and worked for her as an adviser throughout her ministerial career.
Another key member of the team is former Wexford TD and minister Paul Kehoe who is managing logistics and the day-to-day campaign.
Enda McGloin, a member of Leitrim County Council and an experienced party official, is the liaison between the campaign and councillors throughout the State.
Heydon has asked the Dublin Bay South TD James Geoghegan to direct the campaign in Dublin. He is organising the party’s TDs and Senators in Dublin to canvass for Humphreys in urban constituencies. Cork South Central Minister of State Jerry Buttimer is fulfilling the same role in Munster.
The campaign is supported by staff at party headquarters, including its press office and social media team.
“The key message is about the individual, the person,” says Heydon.
“The role she is putting herself forward for, her life experience and political experience is a key part of that story. When she talks about unity, community and opportunity, she has lived that during her political life, and also in her previous life in Co Cavan.
“She has 10 years’ cabinet experience so she has great knowledge of the issues around the Constitution and the role of the president.”
Fine Gael will focus a lot on her ability as a Minister in addition to what one describes as “natural warmth”. The party will emphasise her unifying role (as a southern Protestant) as Minister for Arts and Culture in 2016, the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising.
Jim Gavin
Fianna Fáil
Mary Lou McDonald used the phrase “game-changer” to describe Sinn Féin’s decision on a candidate.
In truth, it was more apt description for Micheál Martin’s choice of former Dublin GAA football manager and Defence Forces officer Jim Gavin as his party’s standard bearer.
Fianna Fáil deputy leader and Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers is the director of elections, and he has picked no fewer than nine regional directors, all senior TDs to run canvasses, media and posturing in their areas. Another Government Minister, Dara Calleary, the Mayo TD, for example, is in charge of Connacht.
Two specialists, who recently left senior roles within Fianna Fáil and government, Elaine O’Meara and Charlotte Simpson, have come back to take charge of Gavin’s communications and policy research roles respectively. Staff members will also be seconded to fulfil communications and logistical roles, including social media.
Several of Gavin’s former and present Dublin players have endorsed him publicly with more expected to join in the campaign. Those declared so far include Bernard Brogan, Paddy Andrews, Paul Mannion and Con O’Callaghan.
Several TDs think the party dodged a bullet when the conservative campaigner Maria Steen failed to get nominated as Independent candidate in the race for the Áras.
“She would have taken conservative votes from us that would not have come back,” says one TD.
The party’s key message on Gavin is he is a serious and credible person with a formidable track record of public service, a leader and a unifier.
“He can do that at home and then represent us with pride abroad as a first citizen,” says Chambers.
“He wants to stand above politics and be the kind of unifying figure I think we need in a world that’s so volatile and divisive.”
Catherine Connolly
United Left
The left-wing Galway West TD was first out of the traps and had already assembled the bones of her team before she had received the backing of other parties.
Given her early announcement, Connolly has already been subject to hard interviews over past comments, trips (to Syria), and events.
She has continued in recent days with outspoken and controversial comments during the campaign, firstly on the Palestinian militant group Hamas being “part of the fabric of the Palestinian people” and then a contentious comparison where she said Germany’s current build-up of arms had “some parallels with the 1930s”.
The parties and Independents backing her are a broad coalition and she is viewed as closer to People Before Profit than to her former party, Labour.
Labour and the Social Democrats have mildly taken issue with her comments on Hamas.
[ Catherine Connolly’s Áras campaign stalls on thorny question of HamasOpens in new window ]
“I’m a bit nervous about what she’s liable to say. Her German comments were completely over the top,” says one Labour person.
Connolly’s director of elections is Béibhinn O’Connor, a long-time adviser to the Independent TD in the Dáil . People Before Profit’s press officer, Des Hennelly, has been seconded to head communications. Former BBC journalist Aoife Moore is also involved as a communications consultant on an ad hoc basis.
A key driver of the campaign will be the steering group made up of the liaison TD from each party or group. The group’s members are Ciarán Ahern (Labour), Jennifer Whitmore (Social Democrats), Paul Murphy (People Before Profit), Ruth Coppinger (Solidarity) and Charles Ward (100 per cent Redress Party). Sinn Féin has yet to nominate but the party said it would be a “senior TD”.
Dominant themes of Connolly’s campaign are Gaza, neutrality, anti-imperialism, housing, equality, community, inclusion, Irish unity and the Irish language.
“Catherine is a broad person,” says O’Connor, her director of elections, “and the campaign will reflect that”.
Unlike other campaigns, there is a ground-up element to it that borrows from the 2015 same-sex marriage referendum and the abortion referendum in 2018. There has been heavy use of social media, slick videos and branding. A total of 7,200 volunteers have signed up and more than €100,000 has been raised from donations averaging €33. O’Connor has described the campaign as having “organic reach”.
With Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael transferring heavily to each other, and with a turnout expected to be as low as 40 per cent, Connolly needs to broaden her base if she has any hope of outpolling her rivals.
The extent of the buy-in from Sinn Féin to her campaign will be crucial.
