Parties crank up election machines

The main opposition parties have cranked up their campaign machines and are on an election footing in the race for the next General Election.

Fine Gael, aiming to mount an electoral alternative, has printed up a party newspaper to distribute to 40,000 homes across Dublin in coming days.

The party hopes the initiative will claw back some of the seven seats it lost in the capital in the 2002 General Election.

Labour leader Pat Rabbitte last week began the first of a series of Face 2 Face public meetings in Galway to engage more constructively with the public.

Front bench spokespersons will also be swooping on constituencies in the coming months to raise the profile of party policies.

Fine Gael’s Director of Elections in the recent victorious Meath by-election, Tom Hayes said party leader Enda Kenny is now on an election footing.

“The General Election may be over two years away at the most, but Fine Gael is ready to start campaigning in the morning if it was called today,” he said.

“I’ve never seen the parliamentary party as united and motivated as it is at the moment.”

The party’s strategy in the recent by-elections saw it employ new campaigning techniques like private polling and text alerts.

Party strategists visited the Republican and Democrats’ conventions in the US last year and are hoping to utilise US-style campaign tactics for the next General Election.

Backroom teams are currently designing election bill boards and posters and planning for a jamboree-style party conference later this year.

Fine Gael and Labour also hope to have most of their election candidates in place by the end of this year.

A Fine Gael party source said: “After the last election we stripped down the party machine and rebuilt it piece by piece.

“We’re over halfway through a five year plan of reorganisation aimed at providing an credible alternative government at the next General Election.”