Fine Gael general election candidate for Dublin Bay South Councillor James Geoghegan has warned that the party risks splitting its vote and losing, if it runs two candidates in the constituency.
Amid speculation that former TD Kate O’Connell may seek to be added to the Fine Gael constituency ticket, Cllr Geoghegan said the party made that mistake before and the consequence was that Fine Gae lost out.
He said: “We ran two in 2002 when nationally Fine Gael polled around 22% which is where we are at or below presently and neither Fine Gael candidate got elected.
“Five years later a successful one candidate strategy was ran and the seat was returned to Fine Gael.”
Mr Geoghegan said that this was “something that weighs heavily on the minds of not just the members in Dublin Bay South but the number crunchers in HQ too”.
“The Taoiseach referenced it at my convention itself,” he added.
In the 2002 election, John Gormley, Michael McDowell, Ruairi Quinn and Eoin Ryan took seats while Fine Gael’s Frances Fitzgerald and Colm MacEochaidh were eliminated.
Ms O’Connell has spoken with Mr Harris about a possible return to frontline politics and is understood to be weighing up her options.
Cllr Geoghegan said he was confident that he would win back the seat next time out.
He said: “I’m confident I will take the seat because I obtained 7,000 first preferences in the 2021 bye-election which represented the combined vote of Eoghan Murphy and Kate O’Connell in the 2020 general election – where as we know only Eoghan was successful.”
Cllr Geoghegan added he also had the firm backing from constituency members at their selection convention in January, which was chaired by Mr Harris.
He said: “Almost 200 members voted at the selection convention in January where three other candidates sought to be elected.
“I obtained almost two thirds of the first preference vote at that convention and was selected on the first count.”
Mr Geoghegan said the “members of our constituency know their politics and have placed their trust in me to win the seat back.”
