And Linda Dodds, a former social worker standing for election in St Helier No 2, is faring best out of all the Deputy candidates.
The statistics have been provided to the JEP by local firm Comnexa, which has collated data using its product Brand Follower, developed using software called Salesforce.
Brand Follower allows users to track a particular topic or brand and see where it is appearing online, the sentiment of the posts, and words and topics associated with it.
A candidate’s influence is measured using an algorithm that takes into account the number of posts in which the person is mentioned and the sentiment – positive or negative – of those posts.
It is calculated by reach and frequency – for example, the candidates reaching the largest audience, either through their own audience or the audience of whoever retweets them.
The highest peak online for people talking about the election, which is due to take place on 16 May, came on 11 April – the evening on which candidates for Deputy and Constable were nominated across the Island.
The second-highest peak was recorded on 16 April when the first Senatorial hustings took place at the Royal Jersey Showground.
So far there have been more than 1,600 trackable posts online about the 2018 Jersey election, 75 per cent of them positive. The remaining 25 per cent have been negative.
And two clear lobby campaigns are proving popular, with #plasticfreejersey and #voteforsport both appearing regularly.
Comnexa commercial director Phil Cuming said the posts with the most positive opinions recorded so far had been those that endorsed ideas for tourism.
‘There are also a lot of retweets around this #voteforsport campaign,’ he added.
‘The #plasticfreejersey hashtag is mainly appearing because long-distance swimmer Andy Truscott asked a question at the St Helier 3/4 hustings about it and tweeted about the response, which got quite a few retweets. The Plastic Free Jersey group also held meetings with Ian Gorst on the 19 April and gave him praise. This subsequently received a lot of retweets.’
According to the data, the top Senatorial ‘influences’ are, in order: Senator Gorst, Senator Lyndon Farnham, Deputy Kristina Moore, Reform Jersey – whose chairman Sam Mézec is standing for election on an Island-wide mandate, Deputy Tracey Vallois and Constable Steve Pallett.
In the Deputies’ election, the top influencers so far, after Ms Dodds, are, in order: Kevin Pamplin (St Saviour No 1), Deputy Russell Labey (St Helier No 1), Deputy Carolyn Labey (already re-elected unopposed in Grouville), Deputy Jeremy Maçon (St Saviour No 1), Geraint Jennings (St Helier No 2), Deputy Scott Wickenden (St Helier No 1), Mary O’Keeffe (St Saviour No 3), Deputy Kevin Lewis (St Saviour No 2), Tony Pike (St Brelade No 2), Kirsten Morel (St Lawrence), Mary Ayling-Phillip (Reform Jersey candidate standing in St Helier No 3/4), Inna Gardiner (St Helier No 3/4) and Lindsay Ash (St Clement).
