Chambers reloaded for re-election bid

Freshly-appointed Minister for Finance Jack Chambers has announced his re-election bid in Dublin West.

First elected in the 2016 general election, Chambers has established himself as one of the rising stars of Irish politics thanks to wearing many hats.

Serving as the party’s director of elections in June’s local and European elections, working as a junior minister in a number of government departments such as transport, environment, and finance and becoming deputy leader in recent weeks, Chambers heads into election season with a string of recent hits under his belt.

Chambers said he was “delighted” to secure the nomination and thanked local party members for their support.

Dublin West is one of the most sprawling constituencies in the country, taking in Phoenix Park, Ashtown, Chambers’ old constituency of Castleknock, Blanchardstown and Clonsilla.

Upgraded to a 5-seater for the next general election, Chambers joins fellow Castleknockers Ellen Troy of Aontú and Labour’s John Walsh as the candidates who have declared their candidacy for Dublin West’s next trip to the polls.

Fine Gael will not select their candidate (or indeed, candidates) until a selection convention in September, while Sinn Féin has implied they will want to bring in a running mate alongside 2020’s poll-topper Paul Donnelly.

Chambers will be flying solo in Dublin West in a general election, which most political analysts have tipped to take place before the end of 2024.

In terms of Fianna Fáil’s electoral performance in Chambers’ backyard in June, the party fared relatively well.

Prior to June 7, Fianna Fáil had four councillors in the local electoral areas covered by Dublin West (Cabra-Glasnevin, Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart, Ongar, and Castleknock) and stayed on those same number of seats following June’s local elections.

Chambers saw a minor dip in his first preferences in 2020 compared to 2016 (2020 saw him drop from 16.5% to 15.8%, or a drop of exactly 25 first preferences from one election to the other) but considering local electoral success for the party and his boosted media profile, Chambers appears to be a near-lock to win re-election

Chambers’ anticipated strong performance raises the question as to why Fianna Fáil hasn’t opted to bring in a running mate for Chambers.

With Chambers having first-hand experience of electioneering, he may well have learned his lessons from the frontline.

Between Cabra-Glasnevin, Ongar, Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart, and Castleknock, Sinn Féin ran eleven candidates but only got three (Angela Donnelly, Breda Hanapy, and Seamus McGrattan) elected.

By comparison, Fianna Fáil ran eight candidates across the exact same constituencies and got four (John Stephens, JK Onwumereh, Eimear Carbone-Mangan and Tom Kitt) elected.

Fine Gael TD for Dublin Central Paschal Donohoe, himself a councillor for Cabra-Glasnevin prior to his election as a TD, noted that Fine Gael played it safe in terms of candidates elected and got two out of two candidates elected on his home turf compared to Sinn Fein running four and getting just one elected.

With Chambers and Donhoe working together in coalition, Donohoe’s “prince of prudence” moniker appears to have rubbed off Chambers.