How does someone become a politician (in a meaningful manner)

Hey all,

Not the most politically informed, but I'm wondering; how do people actually go about getting into politics?

Say i wanted to take Enda Kenny's role in a few years, what way does a person actually go about doing that?


I'm aware the majority of people involved in any meaningful way in the political scene are generally voted into their position by the public, but where does the average joe soap actually start?

Must you join a current party (a quick Google search for "join labour" (random party off the top of my head) leads me to a page where I can become a member for €15, or €10 if I'm over 65. I'm going to assume this is to join some sort of fan club (for lack of a better term), rather than actually be involved in the party itself?


Just curious (also, apologies if wrong forum),


Cheers

CiaranC

Deleted User wrote: »

(a quick Google search for "join labour" (random party off the top of my head) leads me to a page where I can become a member for €15, or €10 if I'm over 65. I'm going to assume this is to join some sort of fan club (for lack of a better term), rather than actually be involved in the party itself?

Yeah thats the Labour fan club

Kinski

Deleted User wrote: »

Say i wanted to take Enda Kenny's role in a few years, what way does a person actually go about doing that?

Consult Wikipedia: Enda Kenny; Brian Cowen; Bertie Ahern; ...and so on.

Many prominent Irish politicians are the son or daughter of a former TD, often holding a seat previously occupied by their parent.

Typically, people who aspire to one day become Taoiseach join a party, help out with campaigns, and go on to contest first local and then, if successful, national elections.

Once elected TD, they work their way from the backbenches to the frontbench. Most who rise to the position of Taoiseach will have served some time as a cabinet minister first.

"A few years" in this context would probably mean around 25-35. As they say, you'd get less for murder

mikemac1

Get involved locally, town council is your first stop

One of the parties may appeal to you but you're never going to agree with everything the party does

If you want to stay independent that's fine too

Or if you already support a local candidate and party you can join them and help out for campaigns and head to meetings

Deleted User wrote: »

Say i wanted to take Enda Kenny's role in a few years,

Would take a few decades to reach the top

Well I'm in Drogheda, so our town council would be Drogheda Borough Council.

What would I actually need to do? Do you have to fill out a form or do you just tell them your intentions and they talk to you from that point, or..?

If you wanted to stay on your own (rather than join a party) what way would that work? Can you get funding and such to let people know you exist or do you invest your own money, and how/when do you actually (eventually) get to have a say in anything? (yeah, i know, Joe Soap is allowed give his advice/opinion on everything, etc. but as i say above, i'd be interested in doing it in a meaningful manner, not where you're slapped on the back with a "fair play for comin' out!" and then instantly forgotten about.

Eggy Baby!

I've been wondering this myself.

I was told by a career guidance teacher that the usual first step to getting into politics is to join a political party of your choice in college. There is no concrete way of getting into politics, and there is no concrete way of succeeding in it either. A lot of politicians tend to be Lawyers though.

antoobrien

Eggy Baby! wrote: »

I've been wondering this myself.

I was told by a career guidance teacher that the usual first step to getting into politics is to join a political party of your choice in college. There is no concrete way of getting into politics, and there is no concrete way of succeeding in it either. A lot of politicians tend to be Lawyers though.

About half the candidates in Galway west last year were independents, who were running on various local or personal platforms, so you don't have to take that route.

If you would normally align with a particular party go to their website and get their contact details. They should be happy to direct you to the appropriate person/location.

Eggy Baby!

About half the candidates in Galway west last year were independents, who were running on various local or personal platforms, so you don't have to take that route.

Well the OP said: "Say i wanted to take Enda Kenny's role in a few years, what way does a person actually go about doing that?"

Independents usually have no chance of becoming Taoiseach. Its a sad fact that Independents usually don't succeed in this country...most people just tend to vote for party politicians.

antoobrien

Eggy Baby! wrote: »

[/I]Independents usually have no chance of becoming Taoiseach. Its a sad fact that Independents usually don't succeed in this country...most people just tend to vote for party politicians.

Becuase we know that with a few notable exceptions (tony gregory, jhr & m lowery holding various governments to ransom) they're extremely unlikely to get anywhere.

Remember we invented the whip system in the 1800's to disrupt the business of the house of commons in order to get Irish issues dealt with.

Btw, remind me never to find out who you are, i sense a competing megalomaniac an the loose

As I said earlier

antoobrien wrote: »

If you would normally align with a particular party go to their website and get their contact details. They should be happy to direct you to the appropriate person/location.

If not set up your own.

RichieC

One girl in my locality ran as a FF rep there last elections, I can tell you she got where she got by going out with the Tallaght echo in tow and complaining about people hanging towels over their balconies in the apartments by the square. yep. During the a financial melt down it's keeping your eye on the details that obviously works. Also, having a diploma or degree in Talking boll political science will help. None of this actual experience in business stuff!!

Eggy Baby!

Btw, remind me never to find out who you are, i sense a competing megalomaniac an the loose

Who me? I'm Enda Kenny's son...(jk)

Cardinal Richelieu

Are you a teacher OP? That seems to work for most, it allows you a good level of social interaction with the community with bundles of free time for local council training, meetings and field trips.

Failing that membership of the Committee on a prominent local club such as the GAA/Soccer or if your more left leaning youth worker. Then make yourself know to the local newspapers so you become Mr/Miss Dial a comment when the local newspaper needs a column filler. I already can predict locally who is going to run in the 2013 local elections from the amount of photo ops as "concerned citizen" they have had in the last year.

Cardinal Richelieu

Cardinal Richelieu wrote: »

Are you a teacher OP? That seems to work for most, it allows you a good level of social interaction with the community with bundles of free time for local council training, meetings and field trips.

No, I'm a Professional Photographer, which lends itself to social activity, of course (a fair few people would know me, or of me, locally).


Is there anywhere you can go to learn more about this? I'd really love to know more (and perhaps get involved in the grand scheme of things).

mikemac1

Join a party and your biggest enemies are in your own party, not in the rival parties.

Serve your time on the council and one day you may want to put yourself forward for TD.
But the connected people might put forward their son or daughter and so you get rejected and humiliated by your comrades.

It's a ruthless business

You can quit and then run as an independent but the people you worked with for years will never deal with you again.

Pride Fighter

Deleted User wrote: »

Well I'm in Drogheda, so our town council would be Drogheda Borough Council.

What would I actually need to do? Do you have to fill out a form or do you just tell them your intentions and they talk to you from that point, or..?

If you wanted to stay on your own (rather than join a party) what way would that work? Can you get funding and such to let people know you exist or do you invest your own money, and how/when do you actually (eventually) get to have a say in anything? (yeah, i know, Joe Soap is allowed give his advice/opinion on everything, etc. but as i say above, i'd be interested in doing it in a meaningful manner, not where you're slapped on the back with a "fair play for comin' out!" and then instantly forgotten about.

You could join a political party. If you join online you will select a constituency that you want to be attached to. You will be able to vote at selection conventions for that area. If you want to get further involved, ring the head office of the party. They will attach you to a branch (FG and Lab call them this, FF/SF call them Cumann). This will be the nitty gritty local stuff. To get selected there will require you to slog for them and proving you have what it takes. Thats the party route.

Independent route, you're a Drogheda man. Run in the local elections. You can run for 2 Councils. The Borough Council and the County Council. Only problem is you'll have to self finance your campaign. And pay 2 deposits. You'd probably be better off going for just the Borough Council, you require less votes to get elected, also the Drogheda LEA for the Co. Council is probably massive, including lots of Rural South Louth. You'll get your deposit back if you get over a quarter of the quota, even after transfers. Also FYI Borough Councillors get about 7 grand expenses and no enumeration. County Councillors get about 17 grand enumeration and 30 grand expenses, just in case you wanted to know.

john reilly

be a teacher, lawyer, accountant. an ability to lie through your teeth. and attend a lot of funerals regardless of who they are.be able to talk for hours without saying anything. and have a lot of free time on your hands

Cardinal Richelieu

Pride Fighter wrote: »

You could join a political party. If you join online you will select a constituency that you want to be attached to. You will be able to vote at selection conventions for that area. If you want to get further involved, ring the head office of the party. They will attach you to a branch (FG and Lab call them this, FF/SF call them Cumann). This will be the nitty gritty local stuff. To get selected there will require you to slog for them and proving you have what it takes. Thats the party route.

Independent route, you're a Drogheda man. Run in the local elections. You can run for 2 Councils. The Borough Council and the County Council. Only problem is you'll have to self finance your campaign. And pay 2 deposits. You'd probably be better off going for just the Borough Council, you require less votes to get elected, also the Drogheda LEA for the Co. Council is probably massive, including lots of Rural South Louth. You'll get your deposit back if you get over a quarter of the quota, even after transfers. Also FYI Borough Councillors get about 7 grand expenses and no enumeration. County Councillors get about 17 grand enumeration and 30 grand expenses, just in case you wanted to know.

Isn't the Drogheda Borough Council going to be scrapped by Hogan? Or is that idea another septic tank decision by him.

http://www.drogheda-independent.ie/news/borough-council-could-be-scrapped-3013276.html

Gregor Samsa

You basically become a politician by getting yourself elected. To get elected, you need to (A) get yourself on a ballot paper first, then (B) get enough people to support you.

For getting yourself on a ballot paper, you have two coices. Join a party or go independent. If you join a party, you'll have to convince the local branch that you're up for the job. You'd do that by being active in the party and active in the community. You wouldn't just join and expect to be the party's candidate at the next election (unless you're George Lee or someone like that). Bring in a party gives you the support and finance of the party in your campaign (assuming the party is big enough to have any money).

What party you might join depends on your political position. Obviously you'll want to pick one that's closest to your own convictions. The bigger the party, the less chance you have (as an individual) to get on the ballot paper, by virtue of the fact that there'll be more potential candidates. The smaller the party, you might have a better chance of representing them, but the less chance you have of being elected, by virtue of the fact that smaller parties tend to attract less support. The last General Election was interesting in that it say quite a number of independents and smaller party candidates getting elected. If you look at the independents, you'll notice that a lot of them already had quite a strong local and national profile. So that will give you some yardstick of what you'd be up against.

If you go independent, you just pay to get yourself on the ballot paper (assuming you meet the age/citizenship/etc. criteria). Then it's up to you to try to convince people to vote for you. You pay for your own campaign. Successful independents actually have quite an organisation of volunteers (and even maybe some paid staff) behind them, and have to be able to fund-raise fairly serious amounts of cash to finance their campaigns.

One you're on the ballot paper either way, you have to get your message out, and convince people to vote for you. If you're a party candidate, a certain amount of that will be done for you, by virtue of the party's election campaign. But you still have to put a lot of personal work into it. As an Independent, it's pretty much all up to you. How do you convince people to vote for you? Have a message they agree with, and get yourself known and trusted by your constituants. And do that better than the other guys. The practicalities of this are of course the difficult bit. Be involved in the community, and causes that reflect your values. You have to be a shameless self promoter - even if you passionately believe in your causes.

A few people jump in at going for General Elections, but probably the best way to get started is to go for local elections first. That way you learn the ropes on a smaller stage. If you're successful there, you can use that as a springboard up to a General Election.

By the way, that €15 you mention for Labour is membership of the party. FG is €15 too. Greens are €20. FF, SF and the ULA don't mention the membership price on their websites, but have forms you can fill out. But for all of them, I'd expect to be hit for various donations/contributions/raffles/fundraising activities too. And you'd want to be partaking in them to be considered an active member of the party. If you were interested in joining any party as an active member, I'd say the best bet would be to find out where the local group meets, and go along and talk to them, rather than just filing out the form on the website.

Years ago, I worked with one current FF TD. He was running for election to the Seanad at the time, on the Industrial and Commercial Panel. He'd been in FF since college, and had a really hard slog running up and down the country, getting himself known by all the Chambers of Commerce, professional Institutes and trade representative associations on the panel. He was successful, and used his senatorship as a springboard to successfully fight the next two General Elections for the party.

I also know a couple of Green Party members, one of whom stood unsuccessfully for local elections a couple of times, and one who wanted to go for the last General election, but was ineligible on citizenship grounds. Both of them do their best to be very active in causes that potential Green voters would identify with. You'd see their names cropping up in the local papers a lot. Like I said, shameless self promotion is key.