ANALYSIS:David Norris says he is keen to carry on but the latest controversy has inflicted a body blow to his attempt to make to the Áras, writes STEPHEN COLLINS, Political Editor
THE PROSPECTS for David Norris of getting a nomination to run for the presidency have suffered a serious setback as a result of the latest controversy to engulf his campaign.
While Norris is adamant that his campaign will continue, even some of the prominent backers who are still standing by him are doubtful about the wisdom of carrying on.
The latest controversy has inflicted a body blow to the Trinity Senator’s campaign to get on the ballot paper for the presidential election.
The fact that Norris wrote a letter to an Israeli court pleading for clemency for his former partner who had been convicted of having sex with a minor raises a big question mark about his judgment.
In the current political climate, with so much focus on the failure of the Catholic Church authorities to respond appropriately when informed of the abuse of minors, many people will find it difficult to justify Norris’s response in 1997 to the conviction of his partner five years earlier.
The fact that so many key members of his campaign team have resigned is a huge problem for Norris on a number of levels. For a start it has thrown his campaign into organisational turmoil at a crucial time.
More importantly it demonstrates that some of the people who know Norris best no longer have confidence in his suitability to be president of Ireland. If his own staff don’t have confidence in his judgment, how can the Irish people be persuaded that they should have?
What has clearly angered his former campaign staff is that, following the furore early in the campaign over interviews Norris had given in the past, they were assured that no further embarrassing revelations were coming down the line.
“We were told there was nothing else, but how could David have forgotten something so important as the letter he wrote to a court on behalf of his former partner?” asked one former campaign worker. “It begs the question whether there are any other embarrassing skeletons in the cupboard.”
If his campaign workers believe further embarrassing statements may be out there, what is the public to think? The nightmare scenario is that something damaging could emerge after he was elected president.
Some of those close to him are now convinced that the best option for Norris is to withdraw from the race before things get even worse. One of the Oireachtas members who had pledged to sign his nomination papers privately voiced this view yesterday.
“There would be enormous public sympathy for David if he bowed out now and he would even be a bit of a hero. It would be better than continuing on until he is forced out or simply fails to get a nomination. That would be humiliating and it would be so sad for someone who has done so much for Irish public life.”
At present it seems Norris has no intention of bowing out but it is going to be very difficult for him to get the required 20 signatures of Oireachtas members to get on the ballot paper.
Some of those already pledged to sign his papers are having second thoughts. While most of the 14 Oireachtas members who have promised support will continue to do so, he could lose a few.
Getting the 20 signatures was always going to be difficult but it has just become a whole lot harder. Fianna Fáil Senator Darragh O’Brien had proposed that his party could make up the numbers if Norris needed it, but that is not longer on the cards.
The other option for Norris is that the members of the United Left Alliance or some of the Sinn Féin Oireachtas members might be persuaded to lend the required support, but that is now less likely.
There is concern in the Norris camp and outside it at the drip- feed of damaging revelations over the past couple of months. Conspiracy theories about who is doing the leaking have been doing the rounds but so far they don’t have any credence.
The fact of the matter is that Norris has given a number of hostages to fortune and it was inevitable that they would surface in a presidential election campaign.
There has certainly been no evidence of any whispering campaign against Norris from his political opponents in Leinster House. If anything, the mood on all sides up to a few days ago was that he should be allowed on the ballot paper. The weekend disclosures have made that more unlikely.