I'm running for election as Senator in the by-election on the 7th September!
I have proudly represented the people of St Helier No. 2 as their Deputy for two and a half years. In that time I've worked hard to put their interests at the forefront of everything I do in politics and I have kept to every single one of my manifesto pledges.
But now I want to stand before the electorate of the whole Island to get a mandate for an alternative vision to the one being pursued by the Ian Gorst-led government.
The Council of Ministers has cut support for the poorest and most vulnerable Islanders, seen poverty drastically increase and is now proposing introducing stealth taxes which nobody voted for.
I want to make this election a chance for voters to cast a verdict on the Council of Ministers.
Only a vote for me is a vote for change which will send a strong message to the government that they must change direction.
No matter where you live in the Island, you will be able to vote on 7th September. I hope you'll consider voting for me as your Reform Jersey candidate!
I will be voting for you Sam the States need more people like you and being on an island wide mandate will make your voice that much stronger. Best of luck.
ReplyDeleteNot only will you get my vote Sam you'll get all my friends votes too and I've got ruddy hundreds of them.
ReplyDeleteHilary from St Brelades (dam!)
I will be on holiday for the vote,can I do it somewhere beforehand.
ReplyDeleteYes, of course. There will be early voting at St Paul's Centre in Town for a week before the election day.
DeleteHere is what the Vote.je website says -
"Pre-poll voting will be available from Thursday 25th August 8.30am to 5.30 pm until 2pm on Monday 5th September 2016.
It will not be open at the weekends or on Bank Holiday Monday 29th August 2016.
A pre-poll voting station will be set up at St. Paul’s Centre, Dumaresq Street, St. Helier during the week to make it easier for you to vote."
Hope that's helpful. Any questions, please get in touch.
I'll be voting for you Sam and so will hundreds of my Facebook friends even if they have no idea who I am!
ReplyDeleteWell said Dom Le Gresley and Paul Holmes who are both well known on Facebook and all social media. You're a good bloke voting for Sam which I too will be doing.
ReplyDeleteWill you stand down from your deputy position beforehand? How do you rationalise your attempt at being a Senator given that you wanted to abolish the role? I was having a coffee and a colleague of yours was (proudly) telling people that you were going to become a Senator, and run for it before the rank and file had a chance - isn't this a stitch up? Will you take this as the final litmus test of the Reform Party's acceptance in the island as being next to nought? Do you expect to come in the top 50% of candidates, unlike the former Reform candidate for Senator who came as good as last?
ReplyDeleteGood questions. Will take them in order.
Delete"Will you stand down from your deputy position beforehand?"
No. There is no legal mechanism which allows me to do this properly nor has any Deputy who has previously stood in a Senatorial by-election done this. No other candidate has to give up their job just to stand.
"How do you rationalise your attempt at being a Senator given that you wanted to abolish the role?"
Because I want to abolish ALL categories of States Member, including Deputies. I want one category of States Member (don't mind what they're called) elected in equal sized constituencies. I'm the Turkey who will vote for Christmas.
I'm standing for Senator because I'm the best placed candidate on the progressive side of politics who could win it. A victory for the progressives in this election would send a message to the Council of Ministers and other States Members to back off on austerity. I want to achieve this so we can spare the public some of the harshest policies of the Council of Ministers. No other potential candidate could achieve this.
"I was having a coffee and a colleague of yours was (proudly) telling people that you were going to become a Senator, and run for it before the rank and file had a chance - isn't this a stitch up?"
I'm not sure what that means. The party membership unanimously endorsed me. When the by-election was first announced we approached other potential candidates to discuss with them if they'd want to put their names forward (some of whom are likely to be candidates at the next election) and all said that they appreciated the opportunity and were still keen to stand next time, but that the sudden timing of this by-election was not convenient for them and they could not drop their current commitments to run. Each of them suggested I go for it instead.
One member had suggested that Anne Southern go for it again, but Anne did not want to.
I informed party members that I would put my name forward in advance of the party meeting, and I suspect there was a view that I was the presumptive nominee at that point, given that all other potential candidates had backed me instead.
"Will you take this as the final litmus test of the Reform Party's acceptance in the island as being next to nought?"
Reform Jersey's Senatorial candidate at the last election received 17% of voters support. If we had proportional representation then we would have 8 seats in the Assembly right now. Not bad considering we'd only existed for 6 months at that point.
If I receive significantly less than 17% of the vote, that will be embarrassing and give us cause to question our tactics. But the real test is the next general election and whether we can increase our share of the vote. That will likely be make or break.
"Do you expect to come in the top 50% of candidates, unlike the former Reform candidate for Senator who came as good as last?"
I expect to do even better than that.
1. Ferguson ( by a large margin )
ReplyDelete2. Young
3. May
4. Mezec
5 Burger O'Keefe
6. Dun
7. De Faye
8 Ocean
Think I better get down to the bookies.
DeleteSam.
ReplyDeleteThoughts are with family and friends. BODY FOUND.
Sam, you must be seen as the ONLY significant threat to the establishment in this bi election because you are the only one who has been the subject of critical letters in the JEP since you declared. NONE of the other candidates have received such attention so all I can say is keep up the good work and you'll be getting my vote.
ReplyDeleteCritical letters from people who don't exist. Same old JEP tactic as used against Trevor Pitman, Shona Pitman, Montfort Tadier, the JDA and Lenny Harper. At least you are in good company Deputy. The JEP just never changes does it.
DeleteTalking this morning, JEP Opinion and Helier Clement don't exist either but the JEP still uses them to maul people.
DeleteNeither does Paul Holmes, but you still use it to attack victims of child abuse.
DeleteOld Pip Falla who for years wrote the anti-Left hatchet jobs for the JEP having his finger on the pulse of Jersey politics actually lived in Sark throughout, Says it all.
DeleteSomebody have a word with NLC he's putting the election into disrepute.
ReplyDeleteSo Reform Jersey are now running two candidates. Nick Le Cornu and Sam Mezec.
ReplyDeleteJon, tedious even by your standards.
DeleteYou don't put two candidates up when voters only have one vote.
Are we honestly going to do this for the next month?
Our Jon is again being allowed to spin this lie on the JEP's on line comments section (Nick Le Cornu story) in his latest fake ID of DiggerBarnes. Just thought you should know as they say in the Barclays bank advert.
DeleteListened to a recording of NLC on the radio this morning and they wonder why people cannot be bothered to vote.
ReplyDeleteBefore I ask my question, and you may criticise my views (it has happened before by your supporters who have sent me anonymous letters if I write to the JEP and have my address published, but that is another issue), however whilst I regard myself as a progressive leftist, I can't bring myself to agree with many of your policy positions, and can assure you as a result won't be able to vote for you (as an example is Reform Jersey is against the attempts to bring in Means Testing in certain benefits). However, my question is this: If you win the position (causing another by-election in the Deputy seat, which might be very tough for you to win at a subsequent election), will you push for a position in the Council of Ministers? Second question - if you fail to win the election, and lets say come in the bottom rung, will you take this that Jersey is a centrist-right wing community that isn't accepting of Reform Jersey, given you have made great effort without not much reward?
ReplyDeleteSadly abuse is rampant on all sides of the political spectrum. I've had about 20 abusive emails sent via this blog in the past few days alone.
DeleteOn meanstesting, I have no philosophical disagreement with universal benefits. I think if we can afford it there is no reason why every member of society shouldn't be able to take up a free provision from the state. When times are tough and you have to rein in spending on people who don't absolutely need a particular service, I think that the implementation of that meanstesting must be both properly progressive and the bureaucracy to implement it must not be almost as expensive as the money saved by implementing it.
If I am elected at this by-election there will be no places vacant on the Council of Ministers for me to ask for.
I already accept that Jersey is largely a centre-right community. But that doesn't mean that those who hold a different set of values should just give up because that would be a disaster for democracy. I also think that the right-wing government we have is completely incompetent and it would be better for the Island to at least have a competent right-wing government. If left-wing pressure can push things in that direction, then at least that will be some consolation.
The JEP are absolute hypocrites.
ReplyDeleteThey talk about anonymous letters and then use their own anonymous writer Helier Clement to attack you on the Ozouf Flight debacle.
You couldn't make it up.
It was patronising nonsense.
DeleteI don't mind a paper having an opinion section, but those who write it should at least make an effort to pay attention to current affairs before commenting on it.
At no point have I ever criticised Senator Ozouf for leaking the information about expensive flights. I've criticised him for not answering questions honestly.