He is one of the great survivors in the maelstrom that has been Northern Ireland this past 10 years and once again, when you query the likely outcome in South Antrim on March 7th, speculation turns to Alliance Party leader David Ford and whether he will make it to the new Assembly. Plus ca change!
For his own part he is measured. His campaign is "going fairly well." He would be happy to take the last seat again and likes to remind people that it was reported after the last Assembly election in 2003 that he had lost to Sinn Féin's Martin Meehan. That turned out to be somewhat "exaggerated".
He is pretty scathing about the fact that three of the outgoing MLAs contesting this election for six seats in South Antrim were elected in 2003 to represent different constituencies.
They include William McCrea (DUP), elected for Mid-Ulster, Robert McCartney (UKUP), elected for North Down, and Mitchel McLaughlin (SF), elected for Foyle.
Mitchel McLaughlin for his part believes he is "on target" to take a seat in South Antrim. He had been received "very well" on canvasses, "very positively." The party had grown there from a very small electoral base.
There has been some comment about the SDLP's wisdom in putting forward two candidates in the constituency. Its local stalwart Thomas Burns sees no problem. A councillor for 10 years and elected MLA at the last Assembly elections in 2003, he and Noreen McClelland have divided the constituency between them in a bid to maximise first preferences for the party, he said.
His campaign has been going "extremely well" and he felt the party vote would benefit from growth in population to the south of the constituency, on the outskirts of an expanding Belfast. Most of this population was Catholic/nationalist, he said.
The UUP's David Burnside was in buoyant form. He felt the party's manifesto launch has been "very good this year." He admitted he had been "quite critical of such launches in the past, but Reg [Empey, the party leader] did it very professionally, across all sectors."
Rev McCrea said he was standing in South Antrim this time - his son Ian is standing in his old and next door constituency of Mid Ulster - because at his election as MP for the constituency in 2005 he had promised to move there.