Cooke asks people to vote local

Cooke calls for Ballina people to vote local

Anton McNulty

PROGRESSIVE Democrat General Election candidate, Cllr Tommy Cooke has urged people in north Mayo to keep their vote in the region and elect two Ballina candidates to the Dáil.
Cllr Cooke, who only entered the race last week, told The Mayo News that the north Mayo region had suffered as a result of no representation in the Dáil over the last five years and remarked that people will be surprised at the strength of the PD vote.
He said he was personally asked by the party leader, Michael McDowell, TD to run in the election and added that his own early prediction was that he was equal with Dara Calleary and ahead of Cllr Michelle Mulherin in Ballina.
He explained that he would be asking his supporters to vote number two and number three in their preferences to either Dara Calleary or Cllr Mulherin to ensure their vote stayed in north Mayo.
“People around Ballina who I am meeting are saying that they will give me their number one. The name of Tommy Cooke may not be high profile but the people of Ballina know what I have done around the town.
I am the most able candidate in Ballina and I will be asking people to keep their vote in Ballina. We cannot go without having a TD and if I was not elected it would be better to have two TDs rather than having no TD at all,” said Cllr Cooke.
At the last General Election, PD candidate Billy Heffron received 919 votes and was eliminated on the first count, but Cllr Cooke feels that there will be a different outcome this time. He cited the seven per cent of the vote received by Greg Jackson at the County Council election as evidence that the PD vote is on the rise in north Mayo.
“It is good for democracy that there is a PD candidate in the race and people will be surprised at the amount of support we will receive. Greg Jackson polled seven per cent at the County Council elections and there will be a lot of people coming out to support me in north Mayo. There is every hope that I will get a good vote and I will not be in the bottom two,” he explained.