Will Foote 'cross it'?

JLP’s three-time loser makes another bid for East Westmoreland seat

BY MARK CUMMINGS Editor-at-Large, Western Bureau cummingsm@jamaicaobserver.com

Thursday, December 15, 2011

DARLISTON, Westmoreland — EVEN the least discriminating gambler would not bet his money on attorney Don Foote who, for the fourth consecutive time in less than 10 years, will be seeking to win the constituency of Eastern Westmoreland for the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

The results are being taken as a foregone conclusion: Foote will lose — again; that is, if the pundits are to be believed.

In the 2002 general election, his task was the impossible one of trying to unseat then Prime Minister PJ Patterson.

In that contest, Foote lost to Patterson by 4,789 votes from a voter turnout of 59 per cent.

Four years later Foote again received a hiding. But this time from then People's National Party (PNP) councillor for the Leamington division, Luther Buchanan, in a by-election following the retiring of Patterson from representational politics. Foote on that occasion received roughly 3,300 of the ballots cast, while Buchanan polled roughly 6,400 votes.

In the 2007 general election Foote again tasted defeat, losing this time by 3,043 votes

to Buchanan.

On Tuesday, a day after Foote was officially nominated — paid his deposit and given an official copy of the voting list for the constituency — he looked at ease and not at all like a man who is about to lose an election again.

"I am confident that I will take the seat this time around. The people have said that they want the JLP to represent them and I am the best person to do it for the party," he told the Observer West.

He added that he will benefit from the euphoria surrounded the ascendancy of JLP leader Andrew Holness to the highest political office in the island.

Additionally, Foote charged that the PNP has not done enough for the constituency over the years.

"A lot more could have been done by Patterson and Buchanan," he stressed.

"They have all failed the people."

Weeks before Foote's nomination, there were calls by Labourites in the constituency for him to be replaced as the party's candidate in Eastern Westmoreland.

But Foote told the Observer West on Tuesday that those disgruntled Labourites are now fully behind him.

"All the Labourites have come together and are now fully behind me.... so it's smooth sailing to victory now," he argued.

Foote who describes himself as "a man who likes to represent people and to fight injustice," has planned a raft of political activities leading up to the election day.

He will again compete against Buchanan for the nod of approval from the 24,840 electors in the constituency.