Well you see it is a little bit a question of money, although I, at least, am not saying its necessarily a corrupt one. If you tomorrow wanted to run for the Presidency, you could contact all the Councillors in Ireland, or at least maybe half or a third of them, and that would make a big difference in these votes.
But there are approximately 1,000 Councillors in the South of Ireland, so how are you going to afford to (because you might also visit them) or even arrange that? Well thats the story here, Gareth Sheridan can and has done that, even visiting them already in Kerry, whereas the likes of say Sarah Louise Mulligan, the only anti-mass migration candidate in the race, just couldn't afford to.