Saturday, May 07, 2016

Campaign Diary: Day 1 - a candidate is selected

There had been rumours that the sitting Conservative district councillor for Barking and Somersham was less than entirely happy. But, having been interested in politics for a long time, you learn not to get too excited. After all, David Card had only been elected last May. And then, on the Monday before the May Bank Holiday, word got out that he had indeed handed in his resignation.

The next day, the notice of election was issued, with the closing date for nominations set as yesterday.  And I decided that I should offer myself as the candidate. After all, it's important that someone who is willing to fight a by-election campaign and, equally importantly, is willing to be a district councillor if they're lucky enough to win, comes forward. And, besides, Barking and Somersham forms part of Ros's former county division, Bosmere, so there is a connection.

And so it was that, on Thursday afternoon, accompanied by the very same Cllr Wendy Marchant who recruited Ros to the Liberal Democrats in 1990, I presented myself at the offices of Mid Suffolk District Council to submit my nomination papers and have them validated. And yes, they were in order, as you would expect from a group of people who have doing this for a long time.

The Liberal Democrat candidate for Barking and Somersham was official, the first goal achieved. But not the last...

2 comments:

Trevor said...

Good luck with your campaign. If I wasn't on holiday over the end of May beginning of June I would have come up to help.

Mark Valladares said...

Trevor,

Thank you for your kind words - I know that so many people have worked so hard in the run-up to 5 May, and it's time to rest and reflect. People have already made generous offers of help, and I'll make sure that I use that effectively.