Political donors disappear – what price democracy?

Bradley Bytes – A Sort of Political Column with Dara Bradley 

Where have all the political donors gone? When filling out Statements of Expenditure for elections, candidates must declare whether they have received political donations of more than €600. But not one councillor or unsuccessful candidate in May’s local election to Galway City Council, declared that they received €600 or more from a political donor.

Maybe the term ‘political donation’ has been sullied by the brown envelope culture of the past but the tradition of funding candidates’ campaigns – so long as there’s no political favours in return, such as re-zonings – ought not necessarily be a negative thing.

People who donate to charity are lauded, and yet a similar act of civic responsibility by people supporting a candidate because they agree with their political view of the world, is now frowned upon.

It means that candidates must find alternatives. Fine Gael candidates got money back from party HQ – Clodagh Higgins, Eddie Hoare and Frank Fahy were reimbursed €840, €840 and €970 respectively. Unsuccessful candidates John Walsh, Pearce Flannery and Donal Lynch also got some money back from FG.

Fianna Fáil funded one ad worth €500 each to Ollie and Mike Crowe and John Connolly. The Green Party paid €2,206 of Pauline O’Reilly’s campaign and more than €900 for Martina O’Connor’s campaign.

Not everyone was so lucky. Spare a thought for Pat Hardiman, a late entrant into the race in City East. Pat, who stuck by his principles, left Labour to run as an Independent but didn’t feature in the ‘business end’ when votes were counted. A taxi man, Pat’s returns note that he took out a €1,000 credit union loan to fund his campaign, in addition to €1,355 of his own resources.

Cllr Mike Cubbard (Ind) said he raised €2,000 from a table quiz – that meant he had to spend just €161 of his own resources on the campaign. Cllr Colette Connolly (Ind) spent just €1,441 in total, and applied for €250 electoral support from ‘Independent Women in Politics’ to offset some of the cost.

Aontú’s Nuala Nolan, unsuccessful in City East, spent €1,700 – but not a cent of it was her own money, and all was raised through GoFundMe, fundraisers or from party HQ. Her party colleague, Cormac Ó Corcoráin, unsuccessful in City Central, also raised nearly €2,000 through GoFundMe and party HQ.

Labour’s John McDonagh, who lost out in City Central, was perhaps the most successful fundraiser – he said he got €2,760 in cash from a barbeque.

Darius Ivan (Ind) in City West, didn’t raise a cent but wasn’t out of pocket – he was the only candidate who filed returns who spent absolutely nothing on the campaign. He got just 30 first preference votes. Others who didn’t break the bank – and whose votes reflected that – were: Independents James O’Toole (spent €75, won 124 votes); Tommy Roddy (spent €116, won 137 votes), Marc Anderson (spent €184, won 91 votes) and Claire Keegan (spent €625 and won 30 votes – €20 per vote).

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