No sign of an election called yet, but Galway East looks like one of the constituencies which is going to be hardest fought when the Government is dragged to the polls – though their hope still is that the FF-Green alliance will stay in power until 2012.

Last weekend, Fine Gael Leader Enda Kenny was in Tuam at a party charity fund-raiser where he told close on 400 supporters that his message to Fianna Fáil was ‘you can run but you can’t hide.’ He also promised them a major campaign countrywide on FG’s proposals to create jobs, similar to the health policy campaign which ran recently.
 

And tomorrow (Friday) Labour Leader Eamon Gilmore will be on a visit to Tuam and the Galway East constituency, where a major organisational push is being organised – because Labour feel that, even in FF ‘heartland’ like Galway East, the angry mood of the electorate is being underestimated and Dail seats that are considered ‘safe,’ like the second FF seat, could be up-for-grabs in the next election.

Meanwhile, it is clear that Eamon Gilmore, as a native of Caltra, has particularly targeted a potential gain for Labour in the four-seater Galway East constituency, where the political divide at the moment is FF 2 (Micheal Kitt and Noel Treacy) and FG 2 (Paul Connaughton and Ulick Burke).

Labour strategists are basing their thinking on the last Red C national opinion poll a few weeks ago, which showed Labour at 17 per cent nationally in the polls. Strategists say, based on that poll, they are determined that they will have candidates and party structures in place in what they regard as key constituencies like Galway East.
It’s all part of a Labour plan that, if there is a potential ‘tstunami’ of support for Labour around the country – as Galway Labour Councillor Tom Costello called it – then Labour must have a ticket there to cash-in on the swing.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.