How much did councillors spend per vote received?

Bradley Bytes – A Sort of Political Column with Dara Bradley 

Councillors have filed their Statements of Expenditure listing the amount of money they spent on their campaigns to get elected to Galway City Council in May.

All 18 of them were elected, so it was money well spent, but who got more bang for their buck?

We’ve had a gawk at the files to find out how much each City Councillor spent on posters, canvass literature, advertising etcetera, vis-à-vis the number of votes received.

Fine Gael newcomer, Clodagh Higgins, spent the most of any candidate in the 2019 local election – her total expenses incurred were €6,139. And Classy Clodagh also spent the most of any city councillor per vote received – each of her 811 first preference votes cost her €7.56 in election expenditure.

Iron Mike Cubbard, who went on to become mayor, got the most value per vote out of his local election spend compared with the 17 other councillors elected.

Iron Mike (Ind) spent €2,161 on electioneering, and won 1,292 first preferences, which works out at just €1.67 per vote.

The only other councillor to spend less than €2 per vote, was Fianna Fáil’s comeback kid, John Connolly – an election outlay of €1,251 for a campaign that was rewarded with 734 first preferences, or €1.70 per vote.

Here’s a list of the remaining 15 councillors and the amount of money they spent on their campaigns per first preference vote received, from highest to lowest:

Mike Crowe (FF) €6.86 per vote
Frank Fahy (FG) €6.57 per vote
Peter Keane (FF) €6.38 per vote
Owen Hanley (Soc Dem) €5.77 per vote
Niall McNelis (Lab) €5.47 per vote
Eddie Hoare (FG) €5.23 per vote
Declan McDonnell (Ind) €4.75 per vote
Noel Larkin (Ind) €3.57 per vote
Ollie Crowe (FF) €3.70 per vote
Colette Connolly (Ind) €2.92 per vote
Martina O’Connor (Greens) €2.67 per vote
Pauline O’Reilly (Greens) €2.56 per vote
Terry O’Flaherty (Ind) €2.42 per vote
Alan Cheevers (FF) €2.39 per vote
Donal Lyons (Ind) €2.10 per vote

For more Bradley Bytes, see this week’s Galway City Tribune