Politics and Campaigns
Bacik's policies may be described as liberal and social democratic and she has been described as "Labour's queen of political correctness".
Her career as a national politician commenced when she stood as a candidate for the Labour Party at the 2004 election to the European Parliament in the Dublin constituency. She ran with sitting MEP Proinsias De Rossa, who was also the party president, on the same ticket. She polled 40,707 first preference votes (9.6%) but was not elected.
Despite this setback, Bacik remains a prominent member of the Irish Labour Party, representing the party on numerous occasions in public debates and in the media.
She did not stand as a candidate for the Labour Party at the 2007 general election. However, she contested the Seanad Éireann elections for the third time in the University of Dublin constituency, as an independent candidate and was elected a Senator on the eighth count, over the quota but behind rival Independent candidates Shane Ross and David Norris, who had already been elected. She previously contested that same election and constituency in 1997 and 2002 as an independent candidate, but had been unsuccessful.
In September 2006, Bacik was one of the 61 Irish academic signatories of a letter published in The Irish Times calling for an academic boycott of the state of Israel. In January 2009 she declared that she wants Ireland to break off diplomatic relations with Israel and in February 2009 called for a general boycott of Israeli goods.
In June 2009, Bacik was the Labour Party candidate for the Dublin Central by-election but was not elected.
She joined the Labour Party group in the Seanad in September 2009, and became Labour Party Seanad spokesperson for both Justice and Arts, Sports and Tourism.
In May 2010 she did not obtain Labour's nomination to run for the Dáil in Dublin South East.
In December 2010, she was selected as the second candidate beside Labour Party leader, Eamon Gilmore, in the Dún Laoghaire constituency for the 2011 general election. Gilmore topped the poll and Bacik got 10.1% of first preference votes but she was not elected. She was re-elected to Seanad Éireann at the subsequent election, after which she became Deputy Leader of the Seanad.
Read more about this topic: Ivana Bacik
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