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In a seat like Western St Mary where I expect the JLP’s Bobby Montague to relieve the PNP’s Jolyan
of his win in 2011 by a significant margin, money is still important, but even more so in the fight in West Rural St Andrew between the PNP’s Paul Buchanan and the JLP’s Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn where the race is expected to be much closer.
The same is expected in East Rural St Andrew between two newcomers, the PNP’s Imani Duncan-Price, and the JLP’s Juliet Holness. “Boy, is a pity one a dem have to lose,” said a constituent to me last week. “It look to me that they both have so much to offer.”
It would not surprise me if opinion polls published this week show the PNP losing some small ground. Because of this, the funding to keep one’s face visible and one’s voice viable is just the preamble to complete the ground game of funding to get out the vote on election day.
“We have got significant funding now. People who would not talk to me last year are responding now, especially over this debate issue than before,” said the JLP’s Daryl Vaz. “Private-sector interests are hopping mad. We can always use more, but we have come a far way.”
While Vaz is expected to easily retain his West Portland seat, there are some who believe that the JLP’s James Robertson, one of the Young Turks of the 2000s, will have to fight all the way to claw back his Western St Thomas seat.
Robertson has gone silent, but during elections, that has always been his style. He is known for being quite clinical in carving out his close victories. “Don't listen to anyone,” said a PNP source to me. “Robertson is beaten, and he knows it.’
In St Andrew Eastern, the PNP’s Andre Hylton would easily retain his seat if pure charisma was all that was needed. “I recently listened to the JLP challenger Fayval Williams, and while she has some great ideas, I am not sure she has the personality to sell them,” said a medical doctor who lives in the constituency. “She comes across as a university lecturer, not a politician trying to sell a product of new ideas.
In St Thomas Eastern, the still-wounded ex-health minister Fenton Ferguson may be deserving of losing his seat if only for his handling of the chik-V outbreak in 2014 and the dead babies scandal in 2015. Ferguson doesn't have much to play with, and the younger, more energetic and politically hungrier Delano Seiveright may find the election day magic to overcome the JLP 288-vote deficit and take this seat into the JLP column.
Clarendon South East I expect will slip into the PNP column, with another of the Duncan ladies upsetting the JLP’s Ruddy Spencer. I expect the JLP to take St James Central and also to snatch back St Elizabeth South West in another nail-biter.
PNP Deserves Unpleasant Surprise
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/commentary/20160221/pnp-deserves-unpleasant-surprise
of his win in 2011 by a significant margin, money is still important, but even more so in the fight in West Rural St Andrew between the PNP’s Paul Buchanan and the JLP’s Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn where the race is expected to be much closer.
The same is expected in East Rural St Andrew between two newcomers, the PNP’s Imani Duncan-Price, and the JLP’s Juliet Holness. “Boy, is a pity one a dem have to lose,” said a constituent to me last week. “It look to me that they both have so much to offer.”
It would not surprise me if opinion polls published this week show the PNP losing some small ground. Because of this, the funding to keep one’s face visible and one’s voice viable is just the preamble to complete the ground game of funding to get out the vote on election day.
“We have got significant funding now. People who would not talk to me last year are responding now, especially over this debate issue than before,” said the JLP’s Daryl Vaz. “Private-sector interests are hopping mad. We can always use more, but we have come a far way.”
While Vaz is expected to easily retain his West Portland seat, there are some who believe that the JLP’s James Robertson, one of the Young Turks of the 2000s, will have to fight all the way to claw back his Western St Thomas seat.
Robertson has gone silent, but during elections, that has always been his style. He is known for being quite clinical in carving out his close victories. “Don't listen to anyone,” said a PNP source to me. “Robertson is beaten, and he knows it.’
In St Andrew Eastern, the PNP’s Andre Hylton would easily retain his seat if pure charisma was all that was needed. “I recently listened to the JLP challenger Fayval Williams, and while she has some great ideas, I am not sure she has the personality to sell them,” said a medical doctor who lives in the constituency. “She comes across as a university lecturer, not a politician trying to sell a product of new ideas.
In St Thomas Eastern, the still-wounded ex-health minister Fenton Ferguson may be deserving of losing his seat if only for his handling of the chik-V outbreak in 2014 and the dead babies scandal in 2015. Ferguson doesn't have much to play with, and the younger, more energetic and politically hungrier Delano Seiveright may find the election day magic to overcome the JLP 288-vote deficit and take this seat into the JLP column.
Clarendon South East I expect will slip into the PNP column, with another of the Duncan ladies upsetting the JLP’s Ruddy Spencer. I expect the JLP to take St James Central and also to snatch back St Elizabeth South West in another nail-biter.
PNP Deserves Unpleasant Surprise
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/commentary/20160221/pnp-deserves-unpleasant-surprise
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