On the Canvass:A Labour candidate canvassing a place called Connolly Park? With a journalist in tow? Hardly likely to be enemy territory and frankly, it looks like a set-up.
Then again, there are precious few no-go areas in Tralee town for the likeable councillor, Terry O'Brien. Unless, that is, there is a critical mass of women, in which case he has a problem.
Many may never forgive him for voting against locating a new Marks & Spencer a mile from the town. "There are already 100 dead units in the town," he says gloomily, adding he was trying to defend town centre life and its traders. M&S simply threatened to schlep off to Killarney.
Nine councillors of the 12 voted against, but the only two going forward for election in Kerry North are O'Brien and Norma Foley and both are getting it in the neck. "It'll definitely cost me votes", says O'Brien, reeling at the scale of the reaction.
It's his first bite at national politics and he was clearly anticipating a loftier debate. "I'm a bit surprised at how local the elections are. This election is for the State legislature and here we are talking about Marks & Spencer. I feel like saying to people - well, are you happy with the health service? With the carnage on the roads? Or that a job hasn't been brought into the county for years?"
His frustration is palpable.
On the face of it, O'Brien should be well set to fill Dick Spring's shoes. With several supportive O'Brien siblings, no fewer than five tall, elegant election veterans by the name of Spring materialised for the blitz on Connolly Park: Dick and his wife Kristi, Arthur, Maeve and Arthur's son, Arthur John.
Precluded from marching up to doors by his wheelchair, O'Brien is ruefully conscious of Spring's appeal.
"I go to the door and put my hand out and they go straight past you to shake hands with Dick. Even my wife, even she says he oozes charisma," he says in mock-tragic tones.
Pat Rabbitte blew into drizzly Castleisland on the Labour battle bus to a non-combative but deeply lacklustre reception. The fight has clearly gone out of the town - which banned all postering - since Martin Cullen suddenly conjured up €20 million in recent weeks for a bypass.
Back in Tralee, at St Patrick's day care centre, about 30 elderly men and women are wearing "O'Brien No 1" stickers. One 80-year-old leans into O'Brien's ear: "Will that shop come?" she asks. A local shop-owner defends him fiercely and says the traders will vote for him.
Perspective is regained with a call on the Scanlon home, to highlight Labour's proposal to ban the means test for carers. For 11 years, Ted has been primary carer for his wife, Evelyn. "I had a brain tumour and two operations", says Evelyn.
Ted's only gripe is that planning a game of golf "takes more planning than going into Iraq. Our life is okay, we're well organised, but for people just starting, it can be a terrible dart.
"You can be forgotten about. Having a means test is a joke, no one takes it on for the money."