The campaign trail can throw up all kinds of problems for politicians. Housing and social welfare issues are common, but it's the thorny question of a bonfire that stops the Ulster Democratic Party leader, Gary McMichael, in his tracks in a Lisburn estate.
A group of seven youths have approached McMichael as he canvasses a row of small, neat houses. The group's self-appointed spokesman, a pair of drumsticks in his hands, is obviously taking preparations for the July 12th celebrations seriously. "We want to know what's happening with our bonfire," he says.
McMichael quickly sits on a garden wall for a chat - they look like prospective party members. A local councillor, he has said publicly that the bonfire cannot go ahead because elderly people living nearby have complained.
Already 200 tyres have been stacked up close to the pensioners' homes, but the youngsters seem satisfied once McMichael tells them he'll do his best to find another site.
It's the only problem he encounters in an estate where Gary is very much the local boy who's done well for himself.
One woman stops to say he looks just like his father, the UDA commander, John McMichael, who was killed when the IRA put a bomb under his car in 1987. "Unfortunately, I've inherited the figure as well," he jokes, pointing to his stomach under a smart navy suit.
McMichael's mother is among six people helping him on a relatively low-key afternoon canvass. Phyllis McMichael is a school canteen assistant who had separated from her husband by the time of his murder. She says she's proud that her son is carrying on his work. "If his father hadn't died, Gary probably wouldn't be doing this."
She goes out on every canvass with her son. "I am very proud that he didn't turn out the way a lot of people did. He's not bitter in any way. I think he can do a lot for the community, for both sides of the community."
McMichael will undoubtedly get votes in areas like this, where loyalist flags fly on the lamp posts, but he will have a difficult job getting elected.
He needs to more than double the vote the UDP got in this Lagan Valley constituency in the Forum election in 1996. The party, which speaks for the paramilitary UDA, is also highly unlikely to win a seat in any other constituency, so it's crucial that McMichael does well.
Lagan Valley is the constituency of the dissident Ulster Unionist MP, Jeffrey Donaldson, and in the past the UUP has got close to 40 per cent of the vote. McMichael says people are fed up with UUP infighting, and this could work to his advantage.
He says the situation can't be compared to 1996 because of the high profile he has enjoyed during the talks. "Middle-class people are saying `You are doing a good job'. I think I'll get a lot of transfers."
McMichael recently got involved in the debate over the GAA's Rule 21 banning members of the Northern security forces from joining, when he called on the organisation's commercial sponsors to withdraw their support until the rule was changed. "It's certainly getting us votes. People are saying it's about time they were pulled up about it."
Although the UDP is fighting for votes against Ian Paisley's DUP on the doorsteps, Mc Michael says he wants unionists to unite in the Assembly. "We have to overcome this division and reunite unionism." But he would not try to prevent the setting up of North-South structures. "If one element of the agreement doesn't work, then it falls. The agreement is the agreement, and all structures have to be worked."