Election: Winners and losers

Thursday 16 October 2014

The votes have been counted, the polls are in - so who are the big winners and losers in the 2014 General Election?

Bailiwick Express looks over the results and separates the happy from the sad...

Winners

Deputy-elect Russell Labey - St Helier No 1

The new St Helier Deputy is a media legend already, and will be a familiar face to Islanders from local TV news. He got very good reviews for his hustings speeches, as you might expect, and is likely to hit the ground running as a new States Member.

Senator-elect Andrew Green

Coming from a not-too-high-profile three years as Housing Minister, Deputy Green ran a near-perfect campaign to burst into the Senatorial rankings. The result will only fuel his campaign to get the Health Minister portfolio.

Deputy-elect Andrew Lewis - St Helier No 3

An unexpected return to the States in the St Helier No 3 seat for the former St John Deputy. He’s a PR man and a former Institute of Directors chairman, and in his last States incarnation he served a (brief) stint as Home Affairs Minister.

Deputy-elect Scott Wickenden - St Helier No 1

The other newcomer in St Helier No 1 is an IT expert and consultant – he’s expressed a desire to get involved in the e-government project, and to push hard for the redevelopment of Fort Regent, which lies in his district.

Deputy-elect Murray Norton - St Brelade No 1

A former DJ and current restaurateur who won the notoriously-twitchy St Brelade No 1 seat (they tend not to hang on to their Deputies for too long). He’s a well-known local figure, and his work in the tourism industry suggests he’s going to get stuck into that area.

Deputy-elect Peter Maclinton - St Saviour No 1

Better known as Peter Mac from Channel 103FM and La Buvette – but there’s more to this guy than DJing, he’s a therapist who’s into positive thinking. If he’s seen the deficit figures, he’d probably want to be.

Deputy-elect Louise Doublet - St Saviour No 2

The former teacher takes a seat in the district after a big endorsement from outgoing Deputy Tracey Vallois, who has moved to St John. At 30 she’s one of the younger States Members, but she’s got experience in the teaching profession.

Losers

Environment Minister Rob Duhamel

The controversial Environment Minister has been a man on borrowed time – he had no chance of holding on to his ministerial portfolio after provoking and irritating his colleagues in equal measure. The people of St Saviour have called time on his 21-year political career.

Deputy Gerard Baudains

Time just caught up with the Deputy, who had become stuck on two weird themes – scrapping ministerial government and going back to committees, and denying climate change. The rest of the world, it seems, has moved on.

Treasury Minister Philip Ozouf

There's no difference in practical terms between storming to the top of the poll and squeaking in at the end, but it would be hard for Senator Ozouf to claim a big mandate, all things considered. He fought a very strong campaign and was quite open about his concern that trying to steer the economy through the recent recession wouldn't make him the most popular candidate. Don't be fooled by the fact that he only just got re-elected, he's still a Kingmaker behind closed doors, and that's unlikely to change. Don't bet against him holding on to the Treasury role.

Deputy Nick Le Cornu

It was a tweet too far for the Deputy, who must have paid the price for having a go at a fellow Deputy who had been suffering from cancer. Having only taken the seat in a by-election earlier this year, he wasn’t on firm ground to start with.