Mae Sexton

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Mae Sexton (born 28 April 1955) is an Irish politician. She was a Progressive Democrats TD for the Longford-Roscommon constituency from 2002 to 2007.

She is a native of the townland of Glack, near Longford town. Her election in a predominantly rural midland constituency for a party often associated with the urban middle classes was one of the major surprises of that election, and came after a series of near misses from elimination during the progress of the election count.

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[edit] Early political career

Mae Sexton first became active in elected politics in 1991, when she stood as an independent candidate for Longford Urban District Council and Longford County Council and was elected to both bodies, receiving the largest number of votes in each case. She stood in the 1992 general election in Longford-Roscommon as an independent candidate, but obtained only 1,160 first preference votes (2.6%), and was eliminated, failing to be elected.

Prior to the 1997 general election, she joined the Progressive Democrats, and stood in the Longford-Roscommon constituency for the party, obtaining 2,289 first preference votes (4.8%), and being eliminated on the second count.

She was re-elected to both Longford Urban District and County Councils in the 1999 local elections, although her first preference vote for both bodies had declined.

She stood again in the 2002 general election. Her first preference vote increased to 4,679 (9.4%), and she was elected to Dáil Éireann in what was widely perceived as a shock result, finishing 54 votes ahead of a Fianna Fáil candidate for the final seat, having edged out the sitting Fine Gael TD, Louis Belton, by just over 200 votes at an earlier stage in the count.

[edit] In Dáil Éireann

Sexton maintained an active profile within County Longford during her time as a Dáil deputy and built a minor profile nationally as a panellist on political discussion programmes on radio and television. In June 2005, she attracted attention by calling for the Irish government to abandon plans for a referendum on the European Constitution after the defeats of the referendums in France and the Netherlands.

[edit] 2007 election

Her political future was affected by changes in constituency boundaries which came into force at the 2007 general election. County Longford was included in a new Longford-Westmeath constituency. At the local elections in 2004, in which Sexton was not allowed to stand because of legislation forbidding TDs and Senators to serve on local councils, her personal vote largely failed to transfer to her local party colleagues, with her former County Council seat being lost and only the Longford Town Council seat being held by the party.

In the 2007 general election she lost her seat, polling only 2,298 first preference votes (4.2%) in the new constituency and being eliminated on the third count. Unofficial tally figures published in local newspapers showed that her vote had halved in her County Longford base, while she received negligible support in County Westmeath. Her political future is unclear following the poor performance of the PDs in the election, although she claimed in an interview with local radio to be still committed to the party [1].

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Oireachtas
Preceded by
Louis Belton
(Fine Gael)		 Progressive Democrats Teachta Dála for Longford-Roscommon
2002–2007		 Succeeded by
Constituency abolished