Tech-savvy candidates make it personal

THERE was a time when the kit for an aspiring TD consisted of a soapbox, a megaphone, a couple of posters and a wrist as strong as a girder from shaking so many hands.

Nowadays, it’s different. Candidates in this election are using every marketing trick in the book and every piece of new-fangled technology to get their names, faces and messages out there.

Eugene Regan, a Fine Gael candidate in Dún Laoghaire, spent a staggering €45,000 for his local election campaign in 2004 and expects to spend more now. In Meath East, Labour’s Dominic Hannigan and his FF rival Thomas Byrne both have video blogs; the insatiable Jerry Buttimer in Cork South Central even has his own profile on Bebo (the social website used mostly by teenagers).